Cure the wounds of the past
by Geiko
Summary: Three years after his attempted murder,Draco is only a shadow of his former self.Beeing a deatheater brings him despair and nigthmares.He changes sides.Hermoine and the order of phoenix are his only help left but he has to proof himself worthy. Dramoine
1. Prologue Haunting Woman

Disclaimer: I do not own any of this characters, the characters belong to J.K. Rowling

Author´s comment:

1//I never read the last Harry Potter book; my story starts after the sixth book

2//If you don´t like DracoXHermoine then don´t read this story

1)Chapter : Prologue / Haunting Woman

It has been about three years since his attempt to murder Professor Dumbledor, which was the beginning of his disastrous life. Now Draco Malfoy stood there in this empty, dark street at 2 a.m. and waited for his only friends left, Crabbe and Goyle. It was winter and the cold wind blew harshly onto Draco´s face. A cold feeling ran down his spine, not caused by the chilly temperatures but at the thought what he was here to do. Like always they would go to ´recruit´ people- kill or curse would have been better expressions to describe what they were doing. At the beginning he had been mercyless towards everyone who wouldn´t join the dark lord in his glorious fight to clean the world of the mudbloods. ´Crucio´ was the spell he liked to use the most in this time, it had made him feel satisfaction and pleasure while watching his victim in pain. Back then he justified his doings with his pure blood. Everything had been fine until _the incident. _A lot of time had passed sinde _the incident_ but Draco could still remember everything clearly.

_Like today Draco had been on a mission to recruit new followers for the dark lord. A young woman was his target, she lived together with a muggle together,her boyfriend. When the three of them intruded their house, the man was immediantly killed by Goyle. The target wasn´t there so Crabbe dragged the corps of the man into the living room,where he placed him on the sofa, not without leaving a long red line of blood on the floor. They waited._

Clack

_The door was unlocked and they heard her hurriedlycoming closer to the living room door. She had seen the bloody line and had fallen for the trap. The door swung open and the shocked woman was confronted with three deatheaters._

_" Join us or run, bitch", was what Goyle had said. Draco knew that beneath their silver mask both Crabbe and Goyle had a creepy smile, they had gotten since they became deatheaters. After a high-pitched scream the woman ran. Crabbe wanted to follow her up the stairs but Goyle grabbed his arm. "Let Draco have the _pleasure_ " were his words. Draco had been excited,adrenalin shot through his body and with fast steps he followed the woman,his wand drawn. From the end of the floor he could hear her searching for her wand. " One, two three! Ready or not, I´m coming!" When he entered the room the woman turned around to face him. Her eyes widened in shock she stared at him. With one swift movement of his wand and "Sectumsempra " the woman went down. Her blond hair became in the pool of blood an orange colour. The view was disgusting, her beautiful face got a grim expression,filled with pain. It was over, she would die soon because of the immense blood loss. As he was about to leave the room he heard her say in a faint voice: " Frightened bastards! Afraid to show your face" He felt her pulling on his black deatheater robe, threw his silver mask to the ground and turned to look her in the eye. She dug her nails deep into the fabric of his robe. Her face bore into his and he could feel her hate. Only pure hate could have given her the strength to stand up. " I´ll haunt you! Haunt you! Until you die!" she shouted at him. Warm liquid met his face as she spat at him. Due to his shock he wasn´t capable to move. The wand pointed at him and he heard her mumble something. She had cursed him. Her eyes became glassy. He pushed her away. The eyes kept staring at him._

She haunted him in his dreams, from time to time the woman´s face was that of Narcissa Malfoy, his mother. From _the incident_ on Draco rarely used any curses and when Crabbe or Goyle were about to kill somebody he would turn his eyes away.

// In the next chapter there will be Hermoine´s first appearance


	2. The death of Draco Malfoy

Disclaimer: I do not own any of this characters, the characters belong to J.K. Rowling

Author´s comment:

1//I never read the last Harry Potter book; my story starts after the sixth book

2//If you don´t like DracoXHermoine then don´t read this story

2)Chapter : The death of Draco Malfoy

It was 2.15 a.m. when Crabbe and Goyle finally arrived, they ambled down the road like it was nothing special, though it was a 1:1000 chance that they didn´t have to fight their target. The truth was that for quite a long time now someone of the dark lord´s followers let information leek to their enemies.

"You feel prepared,Malfoy?" It was the teasing tone in Goyle´s voice that made Draco want to punch him. Draco had failed several missions. He put on his silver mask and gave his ´friends´ the sign that they could go.

As they approached the house of their victim slowly, Draco had this feeling that this would be his last mission for the dark lord. Tonight it would end with his death.

Tonights target was a mudblood with great influence, Crabbe and Goyle hadn´t bothered to ask for the man´s name and so did Malfoy. It was a big muggle house in wich the target had searched for shelter. From outside you could see that in a room in the upper floor was light.

What a trap.

Well, to Crabbe and Goyle it didn´t matter that just made the thing more interesting for them. They loved to play their ´little games´. Torturing the victim slowly and merciless to its death was one of them, killing all the children while the parents had to watch the scenario was another.

Their sense of joy made Draco sick. He had stopped going into the same room as them when intruding a house, the sight of the room would be the most disgusting thing some could imagine after the two murderers were finished. The sound of wicked laughter and painfilled screams filled Malfoy´s ears everytime. Hiding in a far away room was the refugee he often choose while their missions.

"So, who will have the _pleasure_ this time? Malfoy?"

No answer

"No?" Both snickered "Well,then it´s up to us"

They made the door disappear with a bang. ´Bombada´was not really the best spell to secretly enter a house. It was part of their game.

Slowly they walked up the stairs. Each time their foot left a step the step began to burn in hot red fire, cutting off the escape rute.

_Go to hell you bastards _, Draco thought. "Lumos" There was no need to hide himself and so he wandered through the ground floor of the house, already hearing a fight uprising in the upper floor.

The walls were covered with pictures. Happy waving, a happy family at the beach, a young boy smiling proudly in his Hogwarts school uniform, he was a Hufflepuff boy. The loud ticking of an old hall clock almost made the steps that followed him unhearable but he had already realized it.

Fire spread and soon the house would be ablaze. The large shadow of his tracker touched his feet. He didn´t turn around.

_What are you waiting for? I won´t attack,just do it!_, Draco wished for his murderder to be mercyless. A dead end. In front a big window, right and left no door. There was nowhere he could escape to now. A pitch black shadow covered his back but the person didn´t make a move to attack him.

_You want an invitation,I´ll give you one then. _

Rapidly turning around he pointed his wand at the person standing oppose to him. There hadn´t even be enough time to clearly see his attackers face as he was pushed trough the window by a force he had never felt.

He fell hard on the ground. The earth was frozen and glass fragment were everywhere. A great pain errupted in his stomach. His hand went to his belly and he could feel warm liquid. Everything was blurry and Draco´s body felt strange.

_So that´s how it feels like to die._

A single teardrop ran down his cheek as he gasped for air. This feeling was beyond his imagination. With lost of effort he gained the strength to sit up a bit. He concentrated so much on his view, it made his head ache. Now he could see the splinter that pocked out of his stomach. Even though the pain was almost unbearable he had to know who would grant his wish to die.

Hermione Granger. What irony! But like him she was no longer how she used to be three years ago. Her hair was shorter now but still as bushy as before. Hermione´s eyes bore into the slits of his mask and if looks could kill he would be dead by now.

Death was his only wish but now that it would come true he was afraid.

The wand swung in a circle and then pointed at him. His numb body flew in the air, his feet only inches away from the ground.

"How does it fell,huh?" Hermione pushed the words out between gritted teeth. "Unusual that this time it´s the other way around."

The wand looked like a sword in her hand, her expression was filled wis determination.

"Merciless you torture and kill innocent people! What right do you have?!" Her word were like punches to him. He knew what horrible kind of person he was. "Is it for fun? Because you are _purebloods_?" Faster and faster she spoke,her voice becoming higher. She shook her head. "There is nothing that can excuse what you´ve done" Tears appeared in her eyes. "YOU HEAR ME?! NOTHING CAN EXCUSE THAT!" Her foice filled with grief. She stomped forward and slapped the mask off Draco´s face.

"You?"

Hermione´s eyes widened in shock, while Draco´s face kept emotionless. That were the longest two seconds of Draco´s life. Everything around them was suddenly silent and nobody moved. It was as if sombody stopped time.

The pain in his stomach was bruning like fire. His labored breath and chockes made time move again.

"You deserve this, Draco Malfoy", she hissed.

If her aura had a colour,it would be black at this moment, pitch black.

Tears ran down his cheek. He had completely given up himself by now.

With his last strength he replied: "You are ri-"

//next chapter: Hollow Man: A lot of thinking and revealing what happened in those three years,maybe some order of phoenix. Big Narzissa moment and tough decisions.

I hope you like the story of the first two chapters, I always appreciate reviwes.


	3. Hollow Man

Disclaimer: I do not own any of this characters, the characters belong to J.K. Rowling

Author´s comment:

1//I never read the last Harry Potter book; my story starts after the sixth book

2//If you don´t like DracoXHermoine then don´t read this story

3) Chapter: Hollow Man

Everything went black and his body cold. He was out of strength and fell unconcious. Like that he hung in the air,a pool of blood under his feet.

Hermione could hear the cracking sound of the burning house. It was ear shattering. Slowly,very slowly she let her wand sink. With her wand also Draco´s body sank down and she stadied it with her own.

Her lips near to his ear she whispered :" I´m not like you."

She pulled one of his arms around her shoulders and aparated. His breathing was almost unhearable when they appeared in front of the Malfoy Villa. Hermione dragged Draco´s numb body to the door. He was bleeding even heavier now, aparating had just made it worse. The sun rose and stained everything in a golden colour. Hermione coughed heavily and pulled out a small piece of paper. With a pencil she wrote down a spell that should save Draco´s life. She placed the piece between two of his fingers, like this it would be seen immediantly.

Moving her wand in two big circles and then pointing up into heaven a big sign appeared in the shape of a phoenix.

"That shouldbe enough", she turned around and walked away. A last time she looked back. There was no light in the house, nobody had come out to find Draco´s body.

_He will die_

"No, I´m not a murderer" she ran to the door and knocked loudly. Punching the door as if she wanted to break it. She made some distance between herself and the door and waited for somone to come out.

Light went on and she could hear somebody rush down the stairs. The door flew open and there she was, Narzissa Malfoy. Even thought Hermine stood right in front og her, Narzissa´s eyes first fell on the body of her son. "Draco…" Her eyes were wide open as she stared at him in shock. She fell to her knees and touched him. "No….no no no… don´t leave me alone"

Narzissa panicked.

"He´s alife", Hermione said in a monotone voice. Narzissa looked up, holding her son in her arms. The look on her face was desperate. She looked so old. Her eyes filled with tears and her hands trembled.

Hermine pointed at the piece of paper. "The spell should save him."

"You spared his life …..?" In the golden light of the sun Hermione looked like an angel to Narzissa. So gentle and beautiful. She would never forget the face of this girl.

Hermione´s job here was over, now it was up to Narzissa to save her son. She aparated.

_______________________________________________________

_Drop_

_Drop_

_Drop_

The sound of rain. He was too weak to open his eyes. It had to be night, it was pitch black. Motionless Draco laid in his bed.

_I´m still alive_

He laid way too comfortable, so it couldn´t be hell. Though he could still feel the pain in his stomach. A bitter smell of herbal medicine was in the air, disgusting. Who had saved him?

He felt a light and warm touch on his hand. Something wet fell onto his hand. " Don´t worry, Draco. Everything will become better now. It will change." The soft whisper of his mother. Warm lips pressed againt the back of his hand and tears dropped down on his fingers. Narzissa cried. How much did Draco want to press her hand to comfort her but he couldn´t. His body didn´t obey his mind. She placed his hand next to his body and left the room.

It was his fault. He caused his mother so much pain that she cried. For that he hated himself. She was the only person left that still meant something to him and cared for him.

Draco had lost everything. Everyone. Well, he always knew that his "friends" weren´t real friends.

Crabbe and Goyle had become psychopatic killers.

Pansy… Blaise…

Those two had been real friends… maybe. For their own good Draco had pushed them away from him and got their hate for that but as long as they didn´t suffer as he does it was okay.

_One year after he had become a death eater Pansy wanted to become one too. He had forbidden it and she obeied like always. Being a death eater was horrible,that he had realised very early so he pushed her further and further away, keeping Pansy at distance. _

_But Pansy never thought about ending their arranged marriage. Draco rarely saw her anymore in that time. She spent most of her times with Blaise. And when her belly grew and got bigger and bigger it was clear to him that it was Blaise´s child. That was the best. Blaise was no death eater and would be a good husband and father. _

_Lucius had forced Draco to marry Pansy as soon as possible but when the baby finally came and it was black. Draco had never seen his father in such rage. The first time Lucius had seen the baby he immediantly begun to shout at Pansy, threatening her and telling her that she was the worst scum he had ever met. Draco could only stand there, he didn´t have the heart to speak up against his father. But that wasn´t even the worst thing. Draco had done something even more cruel to her. _

" _You betrayed me. You and your _bastard_ will _never_ get under my eyes again." That was what he had told her, keeping up a mask with a cold expression. _

_On his way out of the hospital he had seen Blaise. Standing face to face Draco saw in Blaise´s eyes that he was the better choice for Pansy. "Take care of her" Malfoy had placed his hand on Zabini´s shoulder and then walked away never turning back._

_______________________________________________________

" Do you know what´s wrong with Hermione, Ginny?", Molly asked her daughter when they had dinner 12, Grimmauld Place. " No, she´s like this since she came back from her mission."

"ALASTOR?!",Mrs Weasley shouted in direction of the living room and as a respons she got a grumpy " Nothing happened" from Moody.

"Maybe it´s because Ron will come soon to visit us" Tonks said while she rocked Teddy on her legs. Ron. As she mentioned his name everyone became quiet. Ginny bit her lower lip.

"Well, she´s a big girl, so we shouldn´t worry about her" Molly said. "What about some more soup,Remus?" Remus shook his head but there was already more soup in his plate.

"I´ll go up and bring Hermione a plate of soup." Ginny grabbed a plate and walked up the stairs towards Hermione´s room. She knocked three times but there was no response so she just entered. Hermione already slept. Letting her friend sleep Ginny put the plate on the table and went back to the others.

As she went out of the door she thought she heard something like _" I´m not like you" _but she must have been mistaken.

_______________________________________________________

It was the middle of the night and Narzissa sat in the bibliotheca of the Malfoy mansion. She had sealed every door so that there would no house elf would be able to sneek on her. For days she spent her nights here, searching for a solution to her problems. All those old book with their secrets. In one of them had to be a way out of her son´s tragedy. Her arm hurt terribly but she endured the pain for her son. She bend above the book and inhaled every single word.

The next page, it was sealed. What secrets were kept on that page?

// That´s it for chapter 3, it´s a longer chapter

sorry for the long waiting but school began again so it might take me some time to write the next chapter

In the next chapter the secret of the sealed page will be revealed and some Lord Voldemort


	4. the solution right in front of me

_The next page, it was sealed. What secrets were kept on that page?_

4) Chapter: the solution right in front of me

Narzissa casted several spells that should unlock the pages but every time she tried sparks came out of the book and attacked her hand. It burnt like fire, even worse. Tears collected in her eyes.

Those pages had to keep the solution she was searching for. Of that she was more than sure.

Her hand was shaking and flinching in pain. "Why? Why won´t you open?", She shook the book while tears were falling from her cheeks. With all the power she had left she slammed the book onto the table and sunk to the ground. Her knees close to her chest she sat there staring at the book with empty eyes.

"I´m good for nothing…", she whispered and leaned her forehead against her knees. Slowly the chilly air of the night creeped into her body, only her fingers were still warm, a burning feeling like the fire of hell. She had searched so long and now that it felt so close she couldn´t even unlock those stupid pages.

"Forgive me, Draco." She grabbed the table and pulled herself up. Narzissa looked like a ghost when she went out and up the stairs to her son´s room, her skin was pale and her eyes seemed like she was looking somewhere far away.

* * *

A small candle brought a shallow light into Draco´s room. With a short movement of her head she gave the elf a signal to leave the room. On a chair next to his bed she took place and hid her face behind her hands, crying mutely, ashamed of her impotence.

Draco awake from the sniffling sound of his mother. It felt like a knife rammed into his heart as he watched her crying. He knew that he was the reason for her pain. After some time that seemed like hours for him which were only mere minutes he found the strength to lift his hand. Gently he grabbed his mother´s hand.

" I´m sorry for causing you so much worries, mother." Her expression was filled with pain and worries. It hurt her hand but still she took his hand and placed it on her cheek. By the touch of his warm fingers her face relaxed a little bit and she could forget the pain for some seconds. With soft strokes Draco wiped her tears away.

"I´m so close…, Draco. ", she said so quiet that Draco didn´t even hear it. Narzissa closed her eyes and pressed his hand against her wet cheek. Like a bird with broken wings Narzissa left the room. Not even her long golden hair could hide her tears. Unable to help his mother Draco watched his mother until the door silently closed behind her.

Draco was alone again but sadness remained in his heart, and it grew. He was worth nothing. If he was a good death eater his mother would not have to worry and if he just died there next to the burning house it would all be over. Sure Narzissa would have fallen into deep despair but sooner or later she would come over it. Slowly he moved his hand to his lips and kissed the tears of his mother away. A deep sigh escaped his mouth, shortly after that he fell asleep again. The woman from a long time ago haunted him in his dreams.

With one swift movement Narzissa whiped away her tears. The wet feeling lessened the hurt of her hand. For now she didn´t have enough strength to try to open the book again so she shuffeled to the master bedroom. As she combed her hair in front of the mirror she stared right into her own empty eyes. Her movements were mechanic. Narzissa was a soulless doll.

She put down the comb and her eyes fell on one of the picture frames that stood there. A pictur of herself together with Draco and Lucius from better times made her smile vaguely. She wanted to pick the frame up as the frame behind caught her attention. A picture of her mother, Druella and Walpurga Black. Those two proud women. She hated both, espacially her mother. She almost dug her nails into the frame.

Then she stared at the picture, her eyes wide open. There it was. The solution was right there. The Black´s house. Tears ran down her cheek as she began to laugh. It didn´t matter anymore which secret those two pages kept.

" Hahahaha … what irony. Never had my mother helped me and now she shows me the solution. Hahaha … it was so easy."

All the pain and sadness was forgotten, pure relief spread in her heart. With this light feeling the woman went to bed and fell asleep imediantly.

The sun just rose as Lucius apparted in front of the Malfoy Mansion. His face showed a grim expression, deep wrinkles covered his forehead. Like he walked to the door it was more like he trampled as loudly as he climbed the stairs. Inside everything was dark,not even the house elf was showing up.

"Hmpf" Lucius threw his robe to the ground and stormed up the stairs. A dark aura surrounded him. His destination wasn´t the master bedroom, it was his son´s room. With a loud "bang" the door slamed open. There he lay, his useless son, slumbering. That peaceful view made Lucius´ rage rise.

"Incendio!" Fire burst on the candle next to Draco´s bed. Awakened by his father´s shout, Draco looked at his angered father in confusion. "_You_", it sounded like a monster´s growl. Lucius took a step toward his son. The light of the candle illuminated his every wrinkle and the dark glow in his eyes. Draco hadn´t seen his father in such a state since he had failed to kill Dumbledor and seeing him like that his eyes widened in shock.

"Why?! Tell me! Why aren´t you even able to do such a simple mission?!" Lucius grabbed Draco at his collar and shook him. Draco gasped for air, unable to say anything in his weakened state. "Can you even imagine how much it cost to keep the Dark Lord from killing you, you useless scum?!", Lucius went on to shout at Draco. His hand tightened around Draco´s collar. "You are not worthy to be called a pure blood! A shame for the whole wizard society! You are no longer my son!" Draco was nearly out of breath and struggled onder his father´s hold. He tried to push his father away but Lucius just grabbed harder and shook him more.

"It wouldn´t matter if I just killed you myself, Draco" With that he let go of Draco´s collar and rose his hand to strike Draco in the face.

"Noooooo!" Narzissa shrieked and grabbed his arm. She was awakened by the noise of Lucius´s shouts. "Please, don´t hurt him. I beg you Lucius don´t harm him. He´s your _son_" She had often been scared of her husband but never so intense like now. How could Lucius even think of killing Draco. This was no longer the man she married, he was a monster now, a demon. Lucius freed his arm with a harsh movement that threw Narzissa to the ground. "He´s not my son anymore."

////

_**so sorry for keeping you wait for such a long time but well school is troubling me and my muse kind of hates me lately XD. **_

_**A lot of things happened in this chapter in the Malfoy Mansion. Next chapter some Severus Snape and of course number twelve, Grimmauld Place * dun dun duuuuuuuuuuuuuuun * excitement.**_

_**And yes, I really dislike Lucius Malfoy he´s such a sucker but I love Narzissa.**_

_**Yeah the secret of the two pages wasn´t solved but it´s still important for later chapters XD**_

_**I drew a picture of Draco and Hermione as I think they look in my fanfiction look at my profile to find the link  
**_

_**((if someone is interested in this picture I´m willing to just give it away as a present since most of the readers of this fiction are from Austria it shouldn´t be that big of a problem to send it to you ^^))**_

_**Comments,critics and suggestions are always welcome 3.**_

_**A belated "Merry Christmas" to all of you 3 * kisses ***_


	5. Number twelve, Grimmauld Place

_[[I don´t own the characters]]_

_Lucius freed his arm with a harsh movement that threw Narzissa to the ground. "He´s not my son anymore."_

Chapter 5: number twelve, Gimmauld Place

With those words Lucius stormed out of the room, only the slamming of the front door could be heard. The room was left in silence expect from the sniffing sound.

Narzissa cried. Often she had been scared of her husband or hasn´t been of one mind with Lucius. Never would she have thought that Lucius was capable of something like that. _Never_. When they had married she looked at him through the pink glasses of love, lied to herself. She had always defended him or had pretended he wasn´t like he was. She could no longer do that. Lucius had crossed the line. No longer could she ignore his horrible actions. How could he abandon his son? Was his loyalty towards the Dark Lord that great? Narzissa knew that her husband admired and feared Voldemort but couldn´t imagine that he would go that far for that man- no, monster. Lucius had long before chosen a path she didn´t want to follow him.

Everything Draco had ever wanted was the appreciation of his father but he had failed to gain it. Pain and relief. Both emotions dwelled in his chest. Pain because it really hurt that his father pushed him away and was scum in his eyes. Also it was a relief, Draco would no longer long for his father´s praise and he saw that the destiny of a death eater was not what he wanted. It would be easier to leave this house. Lucius himself had cut the thread to his son.

A death eater. It never was what Draco wanted. Not his wish. Not what he desired. Nothing he will want. It was what his father had chosen for him but Draco had seen what the Dark Lord made of people. People changed when they served Voldemort, they changed in a bad way. Voldemort had already changed Draco too but in a different way. All the cruelty Draco had experienced. It had opened his eyes. Killing people wasn´t what he was made to do. Draco wasn´t capable of it. Unlike his father he wasn´t cold and without feelings. His victims chased him in nightmares. Horrible nightmares.

Narzissa interrupted his thoughts. "We'll leave. Now." She had stood up and looked at him now. "And we won´t come back, Draco. Never." A loud gasp could be heard from the hallway. In one rapid movement Narzissa turned around. "Who´s there?" Her voice sounded terrifying. Alihotsy the house elf stepped into the room. "You were eavesdropping?" The elf shook her head vehemently. "No eavesdropping. NO eavesdropping. Alihotsy would never do that." Narzissa glared at the elf and grabbed the small woman. "You WERE eavesdropping, how dare you." Alihotsy struggled helplessly in Narzissa´s hold. She kicked and tried to push and scratch her. "You want to betray the master. Just wait until I told the master of your plans. He´ll punish you! He´ll kill you! You TRAITOR!" She broke out in hysteric laughter still trying to free herself. Narzissa only tightened her grasp. "You won´t. Not if I can hinder you!" She hissed that and threw the elf to the ground, drawing her wand. "AVADA KEDAVRA!" A green lightning shot out of her wand and hit the elf who immediately slumped dead to the floor. For some moments Narzissa just stood there still pointing at the dead body, panting. It had all been too much for her. First her son almost died, then her husband wanted to kill Draco and then this stupid creature wanted to ruin her plans. "Draco, pack your things. Only the most necessary stuff and wait for me downstairs." She didn´t even turn around she merely took a big step to avoid the corpse and left the room.

Draco kept staring at the door. He had never seen his mother performing the most unforgivable curse. She had to be very determined. Draco just sat there in his bed gazing around his room. The room was filled with memories, good and bad ones. It felt like the memories wanted to tie him to this room. His mother passed the open door. "Hurry up, darling." Draco smiled. Realization hit him. This room meant his past, if he didn´t want to go on like before he had to leave and he would do. He got out of bed and quickly dressed. The bag he packed was nearly empty. Nothing seemed necessary enough. Draco already stood in the doorsill as he heard a knocking sound from his window. It was his eagle owl. A long sigh. With only a couple of long strides he stood in front of the window. "Bye" He bid farewell to the owl and drew the curtains close.

As he went down the stairs he could hear his mother rummage in the library. She seemed to search something, at least that was how it seemed when he passed the room and took a short glance at his mother. For some minutes he stood at the door waiting for Narzissa and just as he wanted to lay his bags down she came. One of her bags had to be extremely heavy since her left shoulder was lower than her right. Draco hated to see his mother like this. Even in his weakened state he would rather bear the weight of her bags than the sight of his mother in this situation. "Should I take your bags, mother?" "No." He wanted to ask again but as he looked into her eyes he knew that he shouldn´t. "Let´s go. We have to walk quite a distance before we can apparate without leaving traces."

Draco nodded and walked out into the cold. It had started to snow again and the wind howled in his ears. On his face the little snowdrops felt like needles. The atmosphere brought back memories. Draco put his hand on the spot where the long scar was. He grimaced as he imagined the pain again. The scar would definitively never heal fully, becoming a reminder for him. It was like a symbol, the cut from his past life. Hermione Granger had spared his life and with that had given him a second chance. Maybe he would thank her if he ever saw her again. Maybe.

He kept walking, always thinking about his second chance and his close death. It was like he had been falling into the depth of darkness and then he had almost died. The shock and the pain had kept him from falling any further into darkness. The further he got away from his house the closer he came to the distant spot of light.

Only as the crunching sound of steps on snow became weaker and weaker he snatched out of his thoughts. Narzissa was falling behind. The weight of her bags pressed her down and made it more and more difficult to walk. But still she forced herself to keep walking, the air turned white as she heavily breathed. Draco shook his head, no matter how proud his mother was he would help her if she wanted or not. With long strides he approached her and took the heavy bag. Narzissa reached out to get her bag back but Draco simply pulled it closer to him. "I can carry it…" Blue eyes met grey ones. The eye contact was broken as Narzissa began to cough. Draco shouldered the bag. "I´ll carry it." Narzissa looked up at her son and thought that he was very mature. She was proud of him, she lifted her shivering hand and softly stroke his hand even thought her hand still burned like fire. An almost invisible smile appeared on Draco´s lips. "We have to move on." He turned around and they walked again. This time he looked back over his shoulder every once in a while to see if his mother was alright. They had long come past the gate of Malfoy mansion before they came to a safe place to apparate from.

Leaving a long trail of footsteps behind them they had arrived at a richly ornamented fountain. It showed swans, deer and when you looked close enough you could even see a unicorn. "Shouldn´t we cover our trace?" Narzissa looked in the direction they came from and shook her head. "It´s useless. One simple spell and they will see the trace again." Both took the three steps that lead up to the fountain. Narzissa held her hands palms up in front of her body and Draco placed his onto hers. His mother hesitated, again looking back to where they came from. Silent they stood there and the icy wind whipped against their faces. "Will, you regret it, Draco?" She looked him deep into the eyes as if she wanted to look straight into his soul. For a brief moment Draco wrinkled his forehead but then his expression softened. "No, never." He gave his mother´s hand a light squeeze and they apparated.

First his vision was blurry then he had the feeling that everything around him spun. Apparating in his condition was a bad idea. Draco shook his head and slowly he could see his surroundings clearly. They stood next to a landmark with old runes on it. Apart from that there was only a road and fields. "Where are we?" Draco looked in every direction but could only see the small lights of a far away city and an approaching car. "Northern England." Before he could ask more his mother raised her hands and waved to the car. The car stopped and the car windows went down as if by magic. "Can I help you, madam." The driver had a rough voice, the voice of a smoker. Narzissa tried her best smile even thought an awful odor of smoke and sweat came out of the car. She asked the man if he drove in a certain city or that direction. "Aye, that´s just where I´m driving. Jump in." He laughed and pushed the passenger door open. Draco knew now where they would go and he was shocked. He looked stunned at his mother. "Get in the car, Draco." She told him in a no-nonsense way and got in the car. Obeying his mother he got in the car, too. Both sat in the car now ready to go but the driver just didn´t start driving. Instead he mustered Draco in the rearview mirror first and then he looked at Narzissa. "No seatbelts, no driving. Ya know?" He motioned with his head to the seatbelt. Narzissa turned to this long black … thing … and just didn´t know what to do with it. She looked helplessly at the man. "What to do with it?" " Naaaaa. Don´t tell me you´ve never seen a seatbelt." He scratched his head and looked at Draco again who sat there just as clueless. "Strange folk. You take that iron thing and put it into this little box, understood?" Slowly Narzissa took the "iron thing" and put it into the "little box". Click. The man made a thumb-up sign. Draco did as his mother and the car finally started to move.

It didn´t take long then the man started a conversation. "So what do you want here in this rundown city, eh?" "We visit a friend." Narzissa answered, looking out of the window. "Uuh, a friend. What´s the name? Maybe I know him or her." The lights of the city came closer. As it seemed that his mother wouldn´t answer, Draco said: "Severus Snape but I don´t think you know him." The driver kept repeating the name again and again, over and over. It could almost be compared to psychic terror. "Ah! I think I know him. A really strange guy, rarely see him around in town. There´s something gloomy around him-" It seemed that the driver wanted to start a long monologue about how much he knew about Snape but Narzissa cut his word. "Let us out here." Shrugging the man stopped the car. "Hope ya have a nice stay in our town." He saluted and then drove away.

"Why Snape, mother?" Draco grabbed his mother at the shoulders and stared into her blue eyes. Narzissa placed her hand on one of his. "He´ll help us. He is like us." Draco frowned. "HOW? How exactly is he like us?" "I don´t think he is the Dark Lord´s loyal follower as he pretends to be. I´m sure of it." A sigh. There was no turning back anymore so why shouldn´t he give Snape a chance. They came past big old factories before they arrived in front of a small house.

* * *

Lucius stormed out into the cold. Not even the chilly air could cool him down. They didn´t understand. Their foolish actions brought danger with them, danger for _him_. The Dark Lord preferred to torture Lucius for every fail of his family. A lecture. That was what this shame of a son of his needed. This useless scum. Even a squib was more worth in Lucius´ eyes than his son. Why couldn´t Draco understand the honor of serving the Dark Lord? With a flick of his wand the gate opened wide and slammed close after him again.

_Before Lucius had entered the Lord´s room he had seen Crabbe and Goyle leaving it. __They both had this mocking grin of their lips. Lucius entered the room with a bad feeling, didn´t even step too far into the room. "My Lord, you sent for me?" Voldemort who faced the fire place merely turned his head and Lucius bowed deep. "Lucius, I´m not satisfied." The sound of this cold high voice crept Lucius out and what he said made cold sweat run down his back. "My Lord? I… I don´t understand…" All color faded off his face, a chalk white remained. It clicked behind him and the big silhouette of Nagini slid towards her master. _Ssss_. "Lucius, are you a loyal Death Eater?" " Yes. Yes! Lord, please don´t question my loyalty!" He took a few steps forward shivering. Voldemort eyed him with his poisonous red eyes. A smirk appeared on his lips and he caressed Nagini who had crawled up her master´s shoulder. "Good, I wouldn´t have doubted that… but it seems that your son isn´t lo-" "He´s just as loyal a Death Eater as I am, Master!" As Voldemort approached him he wanted to back away but the Dark Lord was faster. Voldemort dug his nails into Lucius´face. "Don´t interrupt me!" His red eyes dug into the wide opened of his servant. "Listen, Lucius. I´ve already been reported several times that _Draco_ doesn´t do his job. He would have spared dozens of lives if there hadn´t been other Death Eater with him on mission. I can _feel_ that secretly he obeys my orders only reluctantly." The Dark let go of Lucius and turned to the fire place again. Lucius was unable to say anything. Voldemort had spoken the truth and he had no excuses for his son. "Some sick branches have to be cut off, I think I already told you this once before."_

* * *

Narzissa just wanted to lift her hand to knock on the door as it opened. Snape was about to leave his house and was shocked as he saw Narzissa and even more shocked as he saw that Draco was with her. "Narzissa…" His eyes fell one their bags. Hectic he looked around and pulled Narzissa in. "Hurry!" he snapped at Draco. Snape led them into his living room and swung around to stare at them. "Narzissa, you never come for a visit just to have a nice talk, so what is this all about." Severus didn´t beat around the bush and came straight to the point. "We…we need your help." Lifting his eyebrows he let himself sink into the armchair. His fingers touched in a deliberating pose. "My help for _what_?" He perfectly fit into this room. The atmosphere was dark and oppressive just as he was. Narzissa shifted uncomfortable on her feet. Out of her coat pocket she pulled a photography and held it out to Severus. Severus took the picture. "Ts. What about this picture?" As he lifted his head Narzissa smirked at him. She had seen it. Just for one second he had looked confused at the sight of the picture, so he knew the house. Snatching the photography back she also let herself sink onto the sofa and crossed her legs. She twisted the picture around between her fingers never letting her eyes off Severus. "It´s about the house. I plan to make a visit to this house with Draco. But sadly it has been so long since I have last been there so I want you to show me where it is." There it was again, for one second he seemed shocked. Snape frowned. A few seconds they remained in silence then Severus stood up and went to the door. "Sorry to disappoint you but I can´t help you with that house." He opened the living room door. "So if that was every thing you wanted from me I may ask you to leave now. I´m in a hurry." Narzissa lifted her eyebrow and smiled. "Oh, what a pity" she said sweetly and got up, putting the picture back into her pocket. As her hand came out of the pocket it held her wand and with a quick motion she let the door slam shut and pointed at Severus. "_Severus_, we won´t leave until you tell me where this house is." Again she spoke in a hissing tone. Snape opened his moth to say something but Narzissa just pointed more at him as if she wanted to stab him with her wand. "And don´t even dare to make up lies. You know this house and you know how to get there. The order of the phoenix is there, isn´t it?" Severus ´eyes widened and he took a step back. Her hand began to tremble terribly and she grimaced. Through her gritted teeth escaped a growl. Draco knew exactly what happened. Snape used legilimency on his mother. Too bad for Snape that Draco was also capable of legilimency and attacked Severus ´mind.

They all struggled for some minutes then Snape let go of Narzissa´s mind as did Draco of his. The sound of panting filled the room. Severus cleared his throat and then announced: "I´ll help you but I can´t help you to get in. There sure are curses to keep me away." The three of them went out of the house and down a long street. Snape stopped underneath a big tree and turned around. "It´s safe to apparate now." Both Draco and Narzissa put a hand on his shoulder. Darkness came over them and there was this familiar feeling of breathlessness. AS Draco opened his eyes again they stood in a Dark street, only few sunrays illuminated the street. The scene was fascinating, how the street, black and deep blue, was yellowed by the sun. Under the golden and red sky it seemed as if fire broke out on the dark wood of some of the houses. "Where, where is it?" Narzissa whispered and spun around to glare at Severus. Snape remained unmoved just staring at her. Like in his house Narzissa pointed at him with her wand. "You played a trick on us!" She rapidly moved her head to see if Death Eaters came to attack them. "Draco, we have to leave, this is a trick." Before her voice had been firm now it was shaken. She reached out her hand for him who also pointed his wand at Snape. "Number twelve, Grimmauld Place. It´s right there." Snape was gazing at a point behind her and as she turned around she could see it too. When they had arrived there the house hadn´t been there but now it revealed itself. They were both so stunned that they barely hear Snape´s "I brought you here but can´t help you any further." He apparated even before they could thank him. The first to get close to the house was his mother and he followed right behind her. Suddenly there was something. A whisper. A rustle. If you heard carefully enough you could hear it. "_Did you killed me?_" And there he was the horrible ghost of Albus Dumbledore floating in a quick pace into their direction. It became cold around them and dust leaked out of the ground. His blue eyes bored into Narzissa´s. "I…I didn´t kill you!" she screamed at the ghost and Dumbledore immediately turned to Draco. The sight of this terrifying image of his former headmaster made Draco stumble backwards. His breathing became faster and he trembled with fear. It was no use to make a distance between himself and the house, the ghost kept following him. Over and over he asked again. "_Did you kill me?_" It wasn´t a whisper anymore, he screamed. A weak "no" was Draco´s only response, not firm enough to convince anyone. The ghost stopped as if he wanted to let go of Draco but then he lifted his moldy arms reaching out for Malfoy. "_**You killed me!**_" He launched forward. Draco lifted his arms to shield his face but nothing happened. Slowly he let down his arms and saw that his mother had thrown herself between him and Dumbledore as a human shield. She had absorbed the curse instead of him. Chocked sounds escaped her throat and she breathed rapidly, her shuddering body slowly fell back.

"_Mother!_"

_// finally the new chapter_

_you already get to know what Voldemort has told Lucius  
_

_I´ve been quite bored in my free lesson on Tuesday so I already wrote down a short version of the next chapter… it´s a lot XD_

_Next chapter: under observance _

_Some news about what happened after Draco and Narzissa left the house_

_Finally Hermione and Draco will meet again (I swear!) but what will be their reaction to each other _

_Maybe I´ll publish another shorter DxH story soon. Ideas are all in my head. The title will be: masquerade _

_Digital cookies for reviews *heart*  
_


	6. under observance

_// __**Review**__ please *heart*_

_I really appreciate your opinion and suggestions //_

_She had absorbed the curse instead of him. Chocked sounds escaped her throat and she breathed rapidly, her shuddering body slowly fell back. _

"_Mother!"_

Chapter 6: under observance

Draco caught her falling body. Narzissa was wide open and her body twitched as if shocked with electricity. He held her by the shoulders and tried to get control over her movements. She threw her head from one side to the other. A last time she tensed up every muscle and an ear-piercing cry came out of her mouth then her body sunk fully into Draco´s arms. _Eeeek_. Draco lifted his eyes from his mother´s unconscious body and saw how the door opened itself on its own. That could be a trap another spell to protect the house but Draco had to risk it. Pulling his mother´s arm around his shoulders he dragged her towards the house. Her hand became colder, he had to react quickly or she would be dead for sure. Huffing he took one step after another. His mother sure was heavy. Finally he pushed the door open. From where he stood he could hear voices but still Draco didn´t know how to get help from these people, after all he was a former Death Eater. Narzissa´s hand slipped out of Draco´s and she slumped to the floor with a loud thud. Only the shallow breathing of his mother could be heard, then a door flew open and Lupin stepped into the hallway, wand up. It had been foolish to come here. Now not only Draco was injured, no, his mother was close to death and Remus Lupin pointed his wand at him. The curtain of Walburga Black´s portrait swung open and she screamed. "YOU! Damn werewolf, occupying my house and now you dare to point your wand to wizards of purest blood?! Your hand should rot off!" Molly Weasley stormed out of the door Lupin just came out and tried to shut the curtains but stood there motionless. The sight of Narzissa and Draco Malfoy made her stare. As the portrait still kept on screaming also the Weasley girl appeared. "Death Eater, how did you get in?" Draco opened his mouth to answer but as his mother groaned in pain he sunk to his knees. "Mother!" Panicking he looked from one person to the other, pleading. "Help her! Please!" "Don´t just stand there and stare! _Help_!" Walburga shouted and her voice felt like needles in the ears. The groaning became worse and Draco didn´t care anymore if Lupin pointed his wand at him or not. "Mother, stay with me. Keep yourself together." Tears ran down his cheeks as he pressed her hand against his face. Draco sniffled. "Hey, you can´t give up now. We made it into the hou…" Colder and colder her hand became, the skin around her eyes turned dark and her lips were pale. Through his wet eyes everyone looked like mere silhouettes. "She´s dying! Can´t you see it?! Damn, help me! I beg you!" It was an act of despair. He begged for his mother´s sake. They didn´t move. Draco's body was shaking from fear and crying. How come they had made it so far and now it would just end like this?! How? He bent over Narzissa´s body and held her close.

As Tonks made her way through the others he didn´t hear it. "Remus put your wand down!" She ordered her husband and rushed to the Malfoys. "Quick, we have to help her." A hand. A hand touched him on the shoulder and the person to who the hand belonged smiled comfortingly at him. "Don´t worry, we´ll help you." This warm hand pushed him a little away and Remus came to lift his mother´s body up. Limply she hung in his arms. In the door Lupin turned his head to Draco who had followed him. "No, you stay outside." He commanded in a cold tune and after Mrs. Weasley had given a special look at her daughter the door shut right in front of him.

"Malfoy, give me your wand." Ginny threatened hi with her wand but he didn´t think of rebelling. Instead he threw his wand to the floor and sat down on the stairs. Hiding his face in his hands he didn´t know how much time had gone by. To him it felt like hours. The hallway was filled with a mumbling tune. It was Mrs. Weasley and Tonks casting spells to save his mother. As Arthur Weasley came in the house and immediately put his wand up to shoot a spell at him Draco didn´t even lift his head. Ginny had pulled her dad away and told him the short version of what had happened. After that it didn´t keep long until Molly came out of the room again and Ginny ran up the stairs past where Draco sat. Only then Draco looked up again and saw through his still blurry eyes that the woman smiled. Happiness overwhelmed him and he smiled back weakly. It was late noon as Lupin carried Narzissa out of the room, she looked less pale and didn´t hang as limply in his arms as before. As Lupin approached the stairs Draco jumped up and followed them closely, Arthur Weasley always behind him.

They brought her into a room. Draco was so eager to finally touch her again but as he was almost at the door Mr. Weasley jumped between him and the door putting his wand on Draco´s torso. "You stay out!" Arthur murmured. "But… but-"Draco was so bewildered that he stammered. "Arthur!" someone hissed from behind him and Molly squeezed herself out of the door. Mrs. Weasley gave her husband an upset glance and shook her head in disbelief about his rudeness. "Draco, my –"Molly couldn´t bring herself to talk sweet to Draco no matter how sad his eyes looked and no matter how big the urge was to comfort him. "Your mother needs to rest … you also seem to need some sleep." Draco wanted to protest but Mr. Weasley had clutched his arm and ungently turned him into another direction. "Follow me." They walked down the long hallway until Arthur pushed a door open. With a round movement of his head Mr. Weasley showed Draco that he should enter the room. Instead of obeying Draco turned around and looked to his mother´s room door. "Get in!" Slowly, unwillingly Draco turned around again and the gray of his eyes was like clouds which would burst out in rain soon, they carried so much sadness that Arthur felt compassion for the boy for a second. Without arguing any further Draco went into the room, he was the intruder here so he had to stick to their rules. Arthur sighed deep. "You´ll stay in here until we decided what to do with you. Don´t try anything, we´ll keep a guard in front of your door."

The room was dusty but comfortable. Draco paced around in the room until he stayed at the window. Snow had begun to fall again. A calming sight. His shoulders slumped down as a loud sigh escaped his lips. They didn´t trust him, no wonder but Draco would have done the same if he was them. At least his mother was safe again and they were far away from their own house where there was only grief and despair left for them. He turned around and scanned every inch of the room. "Welcome home, Draco …" A weak smile. There was a bed, a small table, a chair and a wardrobe and that was all he would need to make himself a home. He pulled the chair towards the window and took place to watch the snow falling. Hour after hour went past in total silence until steps could be heard and a knock on the door. Like an old man Draco stood up and walked to the door. He was tired, very tired but didn´t even think about sleeping. The door made a squeaking tune as he opened it an in front of him stood Ginny Weasley. She held a steaming plate of soup and one of the bags the Malfoys´ had brought with them. "Mum says you should eat something." She lifted the plate of soup but Draco didn´t take it. Since he didn´t react she shifted on her feet and just went into the room and put the plate on the table. "Oh… and I brought your clothes." Ginny placed the bag next to the table. Draco remained standing at the door. First she frowned then she sighed and with a quick movement of her wand the chair moved to the table. Walking past him she pressed a spoon right into his hand. Before she closed the door again she said: "You´d better eat something or your mother won´t be happy if she wakes up and finds out that her son starved to death." Draco saw her smile in the second she closed the door. Disbelieving he shook his head. How could he have been that foolish for all those years? Not Potter had chosen the wrong friends, Draco had.

* * *

The confusion was big and the discussion loud in the living room of Grimmauld Place twelve. One after another everyone had stated their theory about the reasons for the Malfoys to come to this place. That they got the information about the location from Severus Snape was clear to all of them. "We can´t trust them!" Arthur shouted and slammed his fist onto the table. Scared by this move Teddy began to cry. Tonks sighed. "There you go, with all you shouting you made Teddy cry. Well done." She made a _tsk_ sound and lifted Teddy up into her arms. "But he is right Dora and you know it." At this statement she pouted. "No, I know nothing. If you think we shouldn´t trust them I have to say that I´m not content with that opinion." She rammed his finger into his torso. Remus opened his mouth to answer but Tonks already spoke. "Also we _have_ to help them. Narzissa is hurt. We can´t just throw them out." Lupin huffed and crossed his arms. "Yes, you are right …" was all he replied – more reluctantly than enthusiastic. The room fell silent. Dark shadows covered Arthur´s and Lupin´s faces. The slamming of the front door could be heard alongside a familiar sound of one who´s dragging one leg after him. Moody was back. He would know what was to do after all he almost thought like a Death Eater. Alastor and Bill entered the room. "Oh! Gloomy faces everywhere." Moody said out loud and took a gulp of his hip flask. "Always nice to be welcomed that warmly." Everyone turned their head towards him. "We have two new _guests_." Alastor raised his bushy eyebrows and his eyes spun around. "You look as if the Dark Lord himself together with a Dementor was in this house." He laughed out loud but fell silent again as the faces around him only became gloomier. Something was wrong here. "Not quite right. Narzissa and Draco Malfoy." Arthur said it slowly and if the two names were a horrible curse. Moody´s eye spun faster and faster. Hectically he hobbled towards Arthur and grip his shoulder tightly. "Narzissa and Draco Malfoy?!" You could clearly see that Alastor was surprised. "Where are they right now?" "They sleep in their rooms." This time it was Molly to answer the question. "Sleeping in their room?! What do you want? Pamper them until they are no longer evil?!" Moody was in rage. He huffed like a bull, ready to attack the torero. "But … but she was hurt, we had to help them!" Ginny flinched as Moody´s eye spun around to her. His look was like a needle it bore right into you. Alastor snarled.

"Bring him down." As Ginny hesitated he shouted at her: "Bring him down!" Ginny quickly nodded and stormed out of the room. It only took some her a few minutes to bring Draco down. Draco´s eyes widened in shock and he became even paler. He feared Alastor Moody. A heavy atmosphere was in the room, pressing Draco down and making it hard for him to breath. Shivering slightly Draco answered the question nobody had asked. "We changed sides. We want to help. I´ll do anything but … please, help my mother. I know it is hard to believe me, I´ll drink truth serum, I´ll give you every kind of information I have." The atmosphere became tenser as everyone waited for Alastor Moody to react. "We will interrogate you but not today. I don´t have veritaserum with me." A heavy load fell off Draco´s shoulders. "Give him paper and a pen." Alastor moved his head into Draco´s direction. "You´ll write down every last bit of information you have. Everything, even the most obvious." Molly who had gone to fetch the paper for Draco came back and pushed it into his hands. "Ginny bring him into his room again. Bill you will keep Draco under guard for now." Arthur ordered his children and they did as they were told. Ginny walked in front of Draco and Bill behind him. As they passed the door behind which his mother was kept Draco stopped abruptly, making Bill walk right into him. Alarmed by the sound of the crash Ginny turned around. The way she looked at Draco was full of pity. "Oh, come on. You can´t go in there, she´s sleeping anyways." Draco didn´t move and Ginny sighed. She took a few steps towards Draco and placed her hand onto his shoulder. "She´s okay. We take good care of her so don´t worry." She smiled at him comfortingly and they strode down the hallway further. Left alone in his room Draco immediately started to write down every single piece of information he knew.

* * *

Late in the evening two silhouettes made their way towards the house that nobody could see. They had been on a mission and had succeeded with some luck. Where they came from the air had been enlightened green and red, more green than red. It had been one of those missions when they had to use _that_ spell. It had cost at least three Death Eaters´ lives. Hermione felt terrible. Her whole body ached from exhaustion. They closed the distance between themselves and the house – Grimmauld Place twelve. Unlike the other times they come back Kingsley didn´t go in directly. This time he turned to Hermione and laid a hand on her shoulder. "I know what we have done is nothing to be proud of but you did well." The warm feeling of his hand on her shoulder made Hermione relax a little bit. Still after all those years that they already fought the dark lord Hermione couldn´t take any death lightly, no matter if it was friend or foe. Her only hope was that it would soon end.

Harry Potter gained more and more sympathies and the number of rebels increased every day. For that, sadly, the Order had paid dearly. Voldemort had become more aggressive and ruthless. Mostly green lightning could be seen at the scene when Death Eaters attacked. It had cost several among the Order their lives: George Weasley, Mundungus Fletcher, Ted Tonks and many others.

Kingsley pressed the door handle down and they entered the house. The sound of talking people could be heard from the living room. Hermione sighed. She was in no condition to talk anymore. "I´ll go up I´m tired." She turned to the stair and dragged herself up the stairs. Making no circuit she went to her room, not even noticing Bill who sat in front of Ron´s former door nor going into the bathroom. Sleep was what she needed the most now. Tired like she was she fell asleep the moment she laid down on her bed.

Wakened by sunbeams that shone through her curtain Hermione put on her dressing gown, fixed her hair until it didn´t look that wild anymore and went down the stairs to the kitchen. There everyone froze as she entered, gazing at her for a second and then continued in doing whatever they had done before. It was strange. Kreacher hurried past her with a tablet with food. On the tablet was the fine silver service of the Black family. Normally he kept the good silver service as far away from anyone as he could. Strange. "Good morning." she greeted her friends and they replied the same with a sweetly smile on their lips. Arthur, Mad-Eye and Kingsley sat at some distance to the others at the table and only talked in a whispering tune to each other. Hermione took her place next to Ginny and put pancakes on her plate. Even though Kreacher was very friendly towards everyone since they gave him "his master´s medallion" he only gave them the old service. Hermione smeared strawberry jam onto one pancake and put another one atop, making some sort of jam pancake sandwich. Along her sandwich she drank tea with sugar. The others around her talked about banalities which they usually didn´t do, usually they talked about the latest missions or the Dark Lord´s movements. Very strange. After she had finished her breakfast Molly eventually said the sentence that made it all clear. "Ginny, dear, bring this plate up into Ron´s room." Ron was back and everyone wanted to go easy on Hermione, which was what Hermione concluded from their behavior. Since Ginny seemed to have missed to hear her mother Hermione took the plate and went out of the kitchen.

She found Bill sitting on a chair next to Ron´s door. They bandied looks and she knocked at the door. Nobody answered. "Just go in." Bill told her and Hermione did as he said and went into the room. First her eyes fell on the almost untouched bed then on the desk covered with sheets of paper and then to the window. The man standing at the window wasn´t Ron. Not blue but gray eyes looked at her. So sad eyes. Draco looked warily over his shoulder. Both merely kept standing where they were and stared at each other. No word came over their lips, pure silence reigned in the room. The silence was broken as hurried steps could be heard, seconds later Ginny also stood in the room next to the baffled Hermione. Nervously she looked from Hermione to Draco and back. "Oh, you found out … we..we wanted to tell you … but you weren´t in the kitchen anymore." She touched Hermione´s arm, forcing her like that to look at her instead of staring at Draco. "Malfoy, he has changed sides, he´ll give us information on the Dark Lord." Widely she smiled at the taller girl. Hermione frowned at Ginny, unable to make any sense of everything. Only days ago she had spared Draco´s life as he was on a mission to _kill_ someone and now he had changed sides. Suddenly Draco stood next to them, sheets of paper in his hand. "That´s everything I know." He gave the papers to Ginny. From close he looked even more miserable as back when she had last seen him but still better than when he had lain in a pool of his own blood. Most superficial scars were gone. Like this he stood in front of her opening his mouth as if to say something but closing it again. Not even a simple _hello_ could cross his lips or _the thank you_ he wanted to tell her. His eyes looked down , he was somehow ashamed that he was speechless. There he saw the plate she had brought for him and gently took it out of her hands. For a time of a heartbeat they stood their staring at each other before Hermione abruptly turned around and left the room. Ginny followed Hermione with her eyes, her eyebrows lifted in confusion. Looking one last time back at Draco she left the room, too.

* * *

The Dark Lord felt neither mercy nor pity for Lucius. Sending him off to fatal mission was the Dark Lord´s pleasure. He had to suffer for the foolishness of his family. Everybody seemed to want to throw rocks onto his way. The new victory of the Order over the Death Eater didn´t help to lighten up Voldemort´s mood either. Narzissa and Draco those two had better changed their mind when he reached the house. He pushed the gate open and made a peafowl flee. As beautiful as those birds were they were still useless. Anger that dwelled in his breast quickened his pace as he strode down the way to the Malfoy mansion. The way was too damn long, Lucius swore loudly. He could see it. Already from afar he could see the wide open door. Lucius would kill the house elf that had left the door open. "Alihotsy! Mandrake! Screechsnap! Yew!" None of the elfes answered. His eyebrows met and his lip curled. Drawing his wand to be ready to punish those filthy, lazy creatures he strode towards the door. Still some dried blood of Draco was on the stairs to the front door. Disgusting. The house looked as if a tornado had rampaged in it. Broken vases were scattered on the floor, pieces of ripped books lay everywhere. The mirror was in thousand pieces. The handrail of the stairs were broken and even seemed burnt at some parts. Something horrible had happened. First Lucius hurried into the library from where came a crackling sound, he found books burning with violet flames that didn´t attack other books. Reaching for a burning book the flame let go of the book and wandered onto his arm. Lucius groaned with pain. "Argh!" He tried to douse the flame by moving his arm vehemently and eventually the flame wandered on, devouring a huge shelf and the books around it. His arm trembled. In shock he looked at what the flames had done. Were the flames had been he could see his bare flesh now, burnt. Quickly he escaped the room and ran up the stairs. The flames didn´t seem to extend. On the next floor a strong squall came from his left side. On the floor beneath the broken window lay the lifeless body of a house elf, the mouth wide opened staring right into his direction with those blank eyes. Lucius faced away from the elf, the sight making him want to throw up. Now he ran from room to room finding every one of them in chaos and one more dead elf in Draco´s abandoned room. In the master bedroom everywhere where clothes, on the floor, at the window. Everywhere but not on the bed. The bed was untouched, only a letter on the pillow on his side. He slowly went to pick the letter up. On the envelope was Narzissa´s delicate hand writing. It said: Lucius. A crashing sound came from the ground floor the noise of breaking wood and rustling fire. As Lucius ran out of the room he could see out of the corner of his eye through the window that something laid outside in the snow – another house elf corpse. At the foot of the stairs stood the last house elf, in flames. "_Master _…" it screeched and wanted to approach Lucius. "Stay away!" He stormed past the house elf and jump away from the library as the flames stretched out violet fingers for him.

_//well that´s it for chapter 6_

_So many characters in this chapter_


	7. interrogation

Chapter 7) interrogation

Hermione trampled down the stairs. One question reigned in her head: _Why was he here? _And where was no sensible answer for her. As she passed the portrait of Mrs. Black the curtains flew open and the usual "Mudblood!" cries could be heard. Hermione turned around and pointed her wand at the curtains. While doing so she kept on walking and bumped into Tonks.

"Hermione there you are.", the pink-haired women said. She frowned at Hermione as she saw how upset she was. Her frown was answered with a glare. The wand which had pointed at the portrait before now pointed at Tonks. "When did you think of informing me that we now host _Draco Malfoy_?" she growled at the older woman and spit out the name of her school time enemy. Tonks´ eyes widened in shock as Hermione stepped even closer threatening her with the wand. "How could you even let him in or _believe_ him? You cannot tell me that you are that stupid to believe this changing-sides lie!" Now Hermione almost sounded as mad as the portrait of Mrs. Black and pure anger lay in her eyes as she bore her wand into the other woman´s chest.

Tonks with her back against a wall could not escape. "Put your wand down, Hermione. I´m not your enemy nor is Draco or his mother." A crazy laughter came out of Hermione´s throat. "Draco **and** his mother! What´s next? Snape? Greyback? Voldemort himself?" Hermione made a sweeping gesture with her wand.

"_**Expelliarmus!**__**",**_ came the spell from Ginny who had just arrived the scene. A hot feeling of pain. That was what Hermione felt next as Tonks slapped her. Tonks´ shoulders moved up and down, she breathed loudly, anger was written over her face. She grabbed Hermione´s shoulders tightly. "What´s wrong with you?"

"No, what is wrong with you? Why do you protect these people?" With a snort Tonks took a hold of Hermione´s wrist. "Come with me." She pulled her up the stairs and did not loosen her grip for even one moment but tightened it whenever Hermione struggled against it. They left behind a perplexed Ginny who picked up her friend´s wand. "You are hurting me!" Hermione exclaimed but Tonks merely shot her a glare. They stopped in front of the room Ginny had slept in before she shared a room with Harry. "Go in." The girl opened the door.

There she was, Narzissa Malfoy. Her skin was as white as paper and black circles where beneath her eyes. She looked thin and very ill. Kreacher sat on a chair and watched the sleeping woman. The blanket lifted almost unseen according to Narzissa´s breathing. Tonks walked past Hermione to stand next to the bed. "How is her condition, Kreacher?" The house elf sighed loudly and shook his head. "She could barely eat some spoons of soup." The next sound could have been a sniffle but it sounded more like a grunt. "You can leave now, Kreacher." Reluctantly the house elf left with an still quite full plate of food.

"Poor Zissy, poor her.", he mumbled while leaving the room. Tonks sat down on the edge of the bed and gently wiped sweat off the blond woman´s forehead with a cloth. "What… what happened to her?"Hermione could not help it but to feel sorry for this woman. She looked miserable. "A lot. Most of which we do not even know what caused it." Tonks pulled up the sleeve to show Hermione her left arm. Hermione took a step back with her mouth wide open in shock and disbelieve. Never had she seen anything like this. It almost seemed like the contours of the Dark Mark were drawn onto her arm by her veins. You could clearly see every vein under her skin and the blood pulsed as if it wanted to escape her body. Hermione reached out to touch it. Her fingers had made contact with the woman´s skin for a second and only very lightly but Narzissa hissed in pain. A single tear drop ran down her cheek. "Merlin, what is this?" She looked at Tonks questioningly but the other woman shook her head. "We don´t know. The only thing we know is that it is no Dark Mark and that it causes her lots of pain." She sighed. "Alastor says it is pure black magic." Tonks pulled down the sleeve again. "Sadly, that is not the only thing. Look at her hands." Hermione´s eves wandered down the woman´s arm and widened at the sight of the hand. The fingers were grey turning black at the finger tips. Surely, Hermione would not try to touch that. "We´ll see to it that someone from St. Mungo comes here to look at her."

Tonks turned around to a shelf near the bed and picked up the books that lay there. "Here", she gave them to Hermione. "Read those. She brought them with her. Maybe you will find the spells that caused all this." She observed Hermione looking down on the books. The younger woman hesitated. "Or so you not want to help this woman?" She pressed the books against her chest. A smell smile formed on Tonk´s face as she patted Hermione´s shoulder. "See, nobody here has gone crazy. We just want to help them. " With a movement of her hand she showed Hermione to follow her out of the room. "She needs to rest. Later, Molly will cast some spells to lessen her pain and Alastor will see that the curse that protects this house did not hit her too hard." Hermione hot a last glimpse of Mrs. Malfoy as she closed the door.

_All this and then also Moody´s curse hit her_

She really pitied her. Both went down the stairs, Tonks into the kitchen where the others discussed, Hermione into the living room where she sat down on a big cushioned armchair. She figured that it would be best to start reading the books right away. After an hour had passed Ginny entered the room to ask her to come into the kitchen. There everyone was gathered and sat on chair standing in a half-circle shape. Opposite those chairs stood one stool so that it could be seen from each person sitting on the chairs. Ginny sat down next to her mother and Hermione chose the chair next to Tonks. As they sat there waiting Tonks leaned over and whispered: "We will interrogate Draco to see if every piece of information is true that he gave us. And-"

Bill entered with Draco. The blond man looked at the floor not to face the others. He felt like a criminal put to trial with everyone against him. The only one to defend him was himself. Bill took the seat next to Arthur and there he stood: Draco Malfoy finally abled to look at their faces. "Sit down, Malfoy." Arthur said and pointed at the single stool. Alastor stood up and limped to Draco. **Klonk Klonk Klonk. **Out of his pocket he drew a small bottle. "Drinbk it!", he huffed in an unfriendly tone. Draco did not react. "Well, then I´ll make you swallow it." Moody had already grabbed Draco by the neck and ruggedly jerked his head back. "I´ll do it myself", he replied, took the tiny bottle and swallowed the liquid in one gulp. "You´d better have written the truth." Moody snatched the bottle out of his hand and went back to his chair but not without shooting him a glance that made Draco shudder. Everybody stared at him and he knew what they thought about him. It was nothing good. He could understand them. Only hours before he had been one of their worst enemies and now they had to trust him.

Yet, he had made a decision and therefore every word he had written down was true. The papers even contained a list of people he had killed or had watched being killed. Not one hideout, member, plan, cruel death or order had been left out. It had cost him a lot of negotiation and while writing everything down he was disgusted by himself for what he had done. Remembering all of this made those memories come back to life. The metallic smell of blood, the pleas, the horrified faces, the fear, the screams. It all was real again.

First they checked all the houses of the Death Eaters on the list and let him describe the buildings and if there were any spells put on them for protection. When they read the address of Zabini´s house where he now lived with Pansy and their son, he answered them every question like with the other houses but added something. "Blaise… he rarely goes on missions as does Pansy. If the Dark Lord had not threatened their child, Hector, they surely would no longer belong to the Death Eaters- " "Going on with the next house.", Alastor said with a cold voice. "No, they really just want to be a family but simply can´t" He sounded so pleading that Molly Weasley gave Alastor a glare that would make the blood of another man freeze. But Moody was not just any man he had been a top auror and had experienced almost everything. "We´ll note it down.", said Mrs. Weasley and nodded at Draco who seemed now more willing to go on with the house list.

It was like this for several hours until Draco had answered each question. Hermione felt sore from having to sit for so long and also sick because of all the horrible things she had heard and Moody had wanted every detail even though everyone could clearly see how much Draco suffered. After Moody put down the last piece of paper Draco was relieved. He had passed the test. Now the Order would slowly start to trust him. Slowly, very slowly. "Well, that´s it then. The interrogation is finished.", said Molly Weasley and smiled at him. She stood up but Moody motioned her to sit down again. "Not quite yet." Draco tensed up. He had answered every question, had drunk two more bottles of this liquid of which he was sure to be Veritaserum. What else should he do now? He turned even paler and grabbed his stool to support himself. Cold sweat ran down his back. Also the rest of the Order members were surprised. So this was something Moody had planned. This could not be good for Malfoy. Mad Eye had always hated him. All eyes lay on Alastor _"Mad Eye" _Moody. The only hearable sound was the buzzing of his eye which looked at everyone while his real one stayed fixed on Draco

* * *

The scream of the house elf was like needles in his ears. The violet fire spread and soon Lucius faced a wall of fire. He had to admit it. This house was lost; the only thing left was to flee before those hot hands took hold of him. Getting in contact with the flames meant his death. Hurriedly he stormed out of the door hearing the thunderous sound of the hell surrounding him. Finally reaching a save distance no longer feeling the immense heat on his back Mr. Malfoy turned around. Everything he possessed was in this house. Now it all fell victim to the fire. Strangely, he was not concerned for his wife or his son. This fire clearly was Narzissa´s handwriting. She had betrayed him. His whole body trembled. How should he explain this to the Dark Lord? He fell down on his knees and hit the ground with his fists. Despair. For what had he deserved all this? A light approached him. The damn house elf had really gotten out of the house alive. Lucius got up and stumbled backwards. The elf body dropped to the ground and moved no longer. Insane laughter echoed through the night. That was it. This fire killed everything so why should it not have killed his wife and son? All he needed were two dead burnt bodies. Should not be that difficult to get those.

* * *

"I will read your mind." **Klonk. **Draco flinched. Almost he would have stood up and ran. "No, please don-" His face was a mask of pain. He jerked his head back and winced. His body seemed out of control. It was a violent intrusion and even for a skilled magician like Malfoy it was too much. The blond man hit the floor and growled. In the distance he could hear how Mrs. Weasley and the others shouted at Mad Eye. It felt like hours although it were mere minutes until Alastor let go of Draco´s mind. He had gotten the reason why the Malfoys were here now.

**please review so I know what you think or your ideas for the story**

**in the next chapter Draco and Hermione will get closer**

**so any guesses what is this "Dark Mark" on Narzissa´s arm? - review**


	8. the Dark Mark

Chapter 8: the "Dark Mark"

Draco woke up when the first sunrays found their way into his room. His body felt heavy as if somebody pressed him onto the mattress. Slowly he opened his eyes. Only silhouettes It took some time until he realized that it was not his room in the Malfoy Manor. A fog lay over his memory. The fog of sleep. He turned his head around and studied the room. Right, he had come here with his mother. _Mother!_ Fully awake he jumped out of bed and went to the door. Draco was worried about his mother. Only seeing her could calm him down. Bill Weasley threatened him with his wand as Draco opened the door abruptly.

"Stay where you are!" Malfoy did as he was told even if it was reluctantly. His heart beat was loud; it sounded like drums in his ears. A horrible noise that caused him a head ache. With this head ache the memories of the interrogation came back. Alastor moody had used Legilimency on him. The pain in his head became unbearable. He took some steps backwards then slid down the door and sat panting on the floor holding his head. "Mom! Help!", Bill shouted and put back his wand. Rumbling Mrs. Weasley ran up the stairs and kneeled next to Draco in no time. She rummaged in her bag and pulled out a bottle with yellow liquid inside. "Here, dink this." She pressed a glass into Draco´s hand which shook so hard that he spilled half of it. "Have I passed?", he mumbled. "What did you say?" "Have I passed?", Draco asked once again looking into the woman´s eyes. It seemed as if Molly could look through his grey orbs right into his scattered soul. He had had a rough time. "Yes, you have passed" Mrs. Weasley caressed his platinum blond hair and helped him control his shivering hand. A smile. Draco smiled and his eyes shone with gladness. It made him seem less pale and a lot healthier. His face glowed with happiness and his hand stopped shaking so he could drink the potion. After that even the last wrinkle on his forehead disappeared. "Thank you."

"Well, I´ll leave him to you, mom. Fleur surely is already worried sick again so I´ll return home." Bill kissed his mother on the cheek and went away. "Come on, I´ll help you up." Draco grabbed the helping hand and stood up, his eyes fixed on his mother´s door. Only this door separated him from her and he longed to see her. He strode past the red-haired women and towards that door. "No, you cannot go in there." Draco did not listen he merely speeded up his pace. His hand reached for the door. The door opened and Tonks got out. Surprised to see him she froze in her movement and stared. Over her shoulder he could see his mother´s weak form lying on the bed. "Mother" He wanted to push the other women aside but she quickly closed the door behind her. "She needs to sleep." Still his hand reached for the door but she shook her head and gently pulled him away. Molly came to them. "Let´s have breakfast, you can visit her later." And as she saw the disappointment in his eyes Mrs. Weasley added:"I swear." A soft touch on his arm, something to comfort him. A nice gesture. He followed the two women into the kitchen. Unlike the night before this room seemed friendly to him. The warmth, the smell, the people sitting at the table enjoying their breakfast. As he entered the room he could read from their faces. Some tried to trust him already; some still gave him this l_ook_. The young Weasley girl smiled at him, the brother and father hesitated but forced a smile upon their lips. Kingsley looked neutral as did Lupin. Alastor Moody was the only one with obvious distrust in his eyes. "Ah!", came a scream but Draco could not locate from where.

"Master Black." Kreacher suddenly stood in front of Draco and looked at him with his big watery eyes. Malfoy was startled that he had addressed him thusly. "Sit down. Kreacher will serve you breakfast, Master Black." Again. This house elf dragged him along to the table and literally forced Draco to sit down. The blond man was too stunned to say anything. Confused he looked around. The others watched the scene with great interest. Alastor huffed."Oy, Kreacher! What about this Master Black thing? He´s a bloody Malfoy", he scowled. The house elf shook his head violently. "He´s Mistress Black´s son." "Merlin, she married a _Malfoy_!" Kreacher hissed at Moody and showed his yellow teeth. "_Lucius Malfoy_ has been bad for Mistress Black." Hatred filled hi s eyes as he spat out the name. The usually big eyes became mere slits. Swiftly he took away Draco´s plate and went away mumbling:"No longer Zissy´s husband, not for Kreacher. Zissy is a Black and so is her son. _Malfoy_…argh…no good. Bad, bad, bad." A clattering sound. Kreacher come back with a fine silver plate and a silver goblet. The crest of the Black family was engraved in the goblet. He placed it in front of Draco."Mistress would scold Kreacher if he did not treat the family right. Kreacher is a good house elf. Fine elf." He bowed low several times and went away. "That crazy elf. I thought he couldn´t save any Black-stuff from Fletcher.", Fred said and stared at the silver plate.

"Shush,Fred." Molly gave him the look, then turned to Draco and smiled. "Help yourself. You must be hungry." The others had gone back to their breakfast and ignored him so he grabbed something to eat. The former Death Eater hated it to be stared at. He really was hungry and devoured his food. Some of the color crept back into his face. So busy with stuffing food into his mouth he did not notice how amused Ginny looked at him, suppressing a giggle. There he sat and ate almost like an animal so unlike the snobby Draco Malfoy she had known from school. Only when somebody sat down next to him did he look up. It was Hermione Granger. Her hair wilder than ever, her eyes barely open. Almost automatically she took her breakfast not noticing the people around her. She looked like a mess. She yawned and rubbed her eyes. "Can someone hand me the butter, please?" Remus handed it to Draco and he to Hermione. "Here." "Thaaaaaa~anks", she answered in the middle of another yawn. Looking back at her plate she blinked, blinked a lot. Then she turned back to Malfoy.

They stared at each other. Again they had reached the point of wanting to say something but cannot. No word would come paste Hermione´s lips and Draco could not decide what to say. A harrumph broke the silence and Mrs. Weasley addressed Hermione:" Dear, would you keep watch over Draco since Bill has gone back to France?" "Uh, yes, sure." She did not look back at Malfoy. Moody´s eyes were resting on them, it was no nice feeling. After Malfoy had lost consciousness Alastor had dragged her away and had had a little talk with her.

"_So, you spared his life?" She had nodded avoiding his crazy eye that moved very fast. His face was so close and the wound on his nose could clearly be seen. "Why?", he brutally grabbed her arm. As a former Auror he mistrusted everyone. Of course he would not understand her reasons. "Answer!" A growl like that of a wild animal. Craziness sparked in his eyes. "I couldn´t …" " What? I can´t hear you." His grip became firmer, it really hurt. Never had he treated her like this before. Baring his teeth he scared her. "I just couldn´t" She collected all her bravery and looked him in the eye. "He was so willing to die but I could not do it. This man is not what he used to be." Pulling her closer he whispered into her ear: "That better be true." And he shoved her from him limping away. Even moments afterwards she could still feel his grip on her arm._

Both had finished eating so Hermione announced: "We´ll go into the living room." And got up. Then she stood there until Draco finally realized that she waited for him to move. Quickly he stood up and followed her into the cozy living room. Hermione sat down in the cushioned armchair and took Mrs. Malfoy´s books. She immediately started reading. Hesitating Draco sat down on the sofa. First he studied the room that must have been very luxurious in the past then he kept watching Hermione since he had nothing else to do. Soon he got bored. "Aren´t you supposed to watch me, Granger?", he smirked. Surely he would get the woman´s attention even if it meant falling into old habits. Not lifting her eyes from the book she answered: "I am watching you." She turned the page over. "Aren´t you afraid I would attack you?" Hermione sighed and raised an eyebrow at him. She did not like to be disturbed. "Will you attack me?" "No" "Fine, then stop asking such nonsense." Draco crossed his arms. "And if I would?" Now she glared at him. It was as if they were back at Hogwarts. "Then, _Malfoy_, I would shock you." His face showed no feelings. "And if you managed to escape we would still have your mother." This sentence was like a slap in the face. Hermione had won. His attempt to tease her had failed. She went back to reading and the only sound was the ticking of the clock. For a long time her former enemy kept quiet.

"I´m thirsty.", he declared and sighed. She stood up and went to the door. Hermione opened it and called for Kreacher who soon appeared. "The _Mudblood_ has called for Kreacher.", he screeched. She ignored the insult. "Bring us something to drink. A peppermint tea for me and…" "…black tea with mild for me.", Draco completed her order. "Is this all? Kreacher can bring pastries as well, Master Black." "No that´s all." Kreacher bowed and disappeared. "Master _Black_?", Hermione asked as soon as the house elf was out of sight. Draco merely shrugged. "Seems like he despises my father." He only said the word father with a low voice. She felt sorry for him. Although she had met Lucius Malfoy a few times she always had the impression that he put a lot of pressure on his son. Kreacher interrupted the silence as he returned with the tea- Hermione put away the books and blew her tea to cool it. "I know those books." "Those are your mother´s. She brought them with her."

The mention of his mother let his longing o see her grow. It made his heart ache. Tightly he grabbed his cup and shivered slightly. No longer could he bear the uncertainty. "I want to see her. Please, I need to see her. I beg you." It was a whisper but Hermione heard him and nodded. She understood him so well, she would go crazy with worry if she did not know that her parents were well. Therefore Hermione had altered her parent´s memory and sent them to Australia where they were safe. They made their way up to the room in silence. Inside Draco went down on his knees next to the bed and caressed his mother´s hand while Hermione stayed at the end of the bed watching over the scene. Again and again he whispered something to his mother. A rustling sound. Narzissa took a deep breath, opened her eyes and slowly turned her head to face her son. She could not feel the warmth of his hand against hers but pain that shot through her fingers as he caressed them. Still a smile appeared on her lips. "Draco" Her voice was weak. Tears gathered in his eyes and found their way down his cheeks. He did not want to cry but could not hold back. The joy overwhelmed him. "Oh mother, I thought I had lost you." Draco sniffled. "Let me kiss those tears away. You have to be strong Draco for both of us." He lowered his head so she could kiss his wet cheeks. Hermione was fascinated be the scene. Although Mars. Malfoy was weak she suddenly looked beautiful. How loving she looked at her son. The love made her glow. She was a mother who would truly do anything for her child and Hermione admired her for that. She hated to separate them but she had to. Narzissa still needed lots of rest to recover. "We will leave now." Draco looked at her pleadingly but she did not give in. So Draco said good bye to his mother.

"Your mother is wonderful.", she told him as they were back in the living room. "I know"

* * *

This night Hermione could not fall asleep so she lay on her bed thinking. She had finished reading the books but still did not know what Mrs. Malfoy may have done. She had even translated the parts in the books that were runes but those turned out to be useless in this case. Nothing explained her Dark Mark. A loud sigh. She could not figure it out. Maybe a good night´s sleep would bring the final idea so Hermione decided to stop thinking about it and go to sleep. She dozed off but did not sleep yet as she made a jump. Blowing open her door she ran down the hall towards Draco´s room. Nobody sat in front of it. They had sealed it. The door could only be opened from outside. If opened from inside a bell would ring alarm in Moody´s room. The blond man lay on the bed and slept. Not even the noise Hermione made while entering woke him. She leaned over him and shook him by the shoulders. "Wake up!" Confused and still half asleep he looked at her. "Show me your Dark Mark." He pulled up his sleeve and showed it to her. "That´s it!", she exclaimed and smiled in victory. She had solved it.

**/ yes I will still keep it a secret what is up with Mrs. Malfoy´s Dark Mark thing. In the next chapter Ron and Harry will finally make their appearance and some other people. In the next chapters Draco and Hermione won´t miraculously fall in love or anything. I want to go slow also that would be so out of character.**

**Please, REVIEW! I would really appreciate it and it will encourage me to update fast**

**Edit: damn it totally forgot that in my story George died and not Fred  
**


	9. Ronald Bilius Weasley

Chapter 9: Ronald Bilius Weasley

Weeks had passed and Draco was now allowed to move freely in the house. Also Mrs. Malfoy slowly recovered thanks to Hermione´s care who still would not tell anyone what this ´Dark Mark` on the woman´s arm was. The house was more crowded so that Ginny and Hermione had to share a room as did Harry and Draco who despite their old rivalry got along quite well. Number twelve, Grimmauld Place inhabited the Lupins, the Weasleys- Arthur, Molly, Ginny, Fred along with his wife Angelina and his son George-, `Mad Eye´ Moody, Harry, Hermione and the Malfoys. That was a total of 14 people. A lot even for a house as big as this. And it should become even worse. Ronald Weasley had announced his visit. This fact somehow let all of them get moody which made Malfoy wonder since they were always normal even when some more Order member stayed in the house and that happened often. Especially Hermione was grumpy. When Ron´s letter had arrived Draco had said to her jokingly: "Oh, your Won-Won comes by to visit you, Granger?" Normally he had taken to call her by her first name but for the rare teases he still called her Granger. "What did you say?", she had grabbed her knife that tightly he was afraid she would attack him and also the Weasley girl had made signs to say nothing. "Nothing." For Draco they had always been a couple. Their attraction for each other had been so obvious in school but that seemed to have changed. Later that day Potter had told him that the two of them had had a huge fight. Harry´s explanation for her behavior ended with the words: "… and then Ron had done something very cruel. But you´ll understand it when he´s here." Everything quite vague in Draco´s opinion.

* * *

The day had come and Draco sat in the kitchen with Mrs. and Mr. Weasley and Harry as the copper-haired man entered the room. His eyes widened in shock as he noticed Malfoy. "Merlin, I thought you wanted to pull my leg when you wrote that _Malfoy_ had changed sides." He was pushed into the room by a black haired woman. A beauty spot was right beneath her left eye. Her nose was just like Snape´s – long and hooked. It made her face look ugly although her other features were astonishingly beautiful. She wore a brown jacket with blue frills along the cleavage and sleeves and a brown long skirt that made her look like a bonbon because at her waist it was puffy and beneath her knees it became tighter again and ended with frills. A silent gasp escaped Draco as he saw that she held the hand of a little girl with bright orange hair. This toddler also had a beauty spot beneath her left eye.

_Could it be? Yes, this has to be their child_ were Draco´s thoughts.

"Ron, take your wand down!", Molly scolded. "No!" Draco would have drawn his own wand but he felt that it would be best not to provoke him. "I don´t want him here!" "Ronald Bilius Weasley! Take it down!", Mrs. Weasley shouted and he did as he was told. All Weasley children did what their mother told them when she got loud and scary. "What is this about?", the woman asked with a hard accent. "They let a death eater in.", Ron spat still having his wand ready, his knuckles white from the tight grip. "Stop that, Ron. You know he no longer is one.", his childhood friend answered as he saw the mouth of the black-haired woman agape in shock. Still the woman pushed her daughter behind her for protection. "I can´t let my family stay in the same house with a death eater. Throw him out or get him a cage!"

Draco had to fight his anger otherwise he would really get thrown out. In his mind yet he pictured what he would like to do to ´Weasel`. No wand included. His fist would smash right into his ginger face. Speaking of him like he was an animal that could be put into a cage. He may have changed but he still was a proud person. The noise of his nose breaking, that would sound wonderful in his ears. In his death eater years he was always disgusted when he had to use violence but this would be way different. But he could permit himself to let his rage out. His nostrils flared with anger. Draco had to admit that to fit in more he would need to change even more. Gaining control over his temper was the first step.

"Ronald, if _you_ cannot arrange yourself with the situation maybe _you_ should leave." This voice came from the door were Hermione leaned, her arms crossed over her chest. "Even you take sides with him?", he asked incredulously. His eyes, filled with pure disgust, wandered from Hermione to Draco and back. "We will leave, Hilde." He wanted to pull her along but she merely stood there. "No, I don´t want to go. Here is safe and I don´t want _muggle_ places." Hermione clicked her tongue and strode past them with a vicious glance at them and sat down next to Malfoy. Of course she did that on purpose. Just to show that she rather took side with Draco than with her former friend. It was to show him that even all the horrible things Draco had done to her in school were not as horrible as what he had done, the boy who had been her friend and lover but had destroyed it.

"Fine then." He hit against the wooden door to let his anger out. "We´ll go into my roo-" "You can´t." It seemed to him that the whole world was against him. Even his parents turned their backs on him. "Fred and Angelina stay there. Kreacher will arrange the living room for you." Hilde looked even more shocked and scornful at the same time. "No! We will not stay in liven room. Fred stay there."; she demanded. Mrs. and Mr. Weasley did not like this behavior. Ron´s wife was arrogant and spoiled. Molly would have loved to tell her that Fred would not move down but she also knew that her daughter-in-law was queen of the thick-headed and would not give up until she got what she wanted. The older woman really did not understand what made her son love this annoying woman. "We will ask him.", she said while silently cursing Hilde.

The mood in the kitchen turned heavy and dark. Glares everywhere. Hilde went to the table, sat down and put her daughter on her lab. " Kreacher, bring me something to eat.", she commanded as if she owned the house as well as its elf. Kreacher merely stood there shooting death glares at her. If Harry, his real master, had not told him to do so Hilde would have starved to death. "You know, Harry, you should get a new ones.", she told him looking unsatisfied at the plate with bread in front of her. Sure, they had more than just bread in the house but since Harry had only told to bring_ something_ to eat Kreacher brought some of the old bread. Ron still stood near the door scowling at them. He felt mistreated and that his friends should respect his adorable wife more. While he said no more Hilde went on complaining about everything- the long journey, the weather, the food, Kreacher-, praising their child or complimenting herself.

Draco now understood the others´ behavior very well. This was the most unpleasant person he had met for a long time. It did not take long until Hermione could no longer take it and excused herself. Short after that Draco found her in the library. He sank down in a large chair and sighed. Not even Pansy could have talked this much about things that rarely anyone cared about. Hermione glanced up from the book she was reading and looked him over. For the time he had been here she had always seen him in his few clothes he had brought with him. Although he combined them well it still felt strange. She remembered him as someone who dressed very elegantly wearing a huge variation of clothes. A huff. " Ginny and I go shopping tomorrow to escape _Hilde_. If you want to you can join us. Although it will be muggle clothes., she said the name of Ron´s wife as if it was something disgusting. Her tone was neither happy nor unwilling. It was quite neutral. He stared at her for a moment surprised by the invitation. "Yes, anything is better than staying with _this woman_.", as he said so he imitated her gesture and facial expressions. It made Hermione smile. In school he had often imitated her or Harry and she always thought he exaggerated too much but now she found it amusing. "Okay, then that´s settled.", she said more cheerfully and started reading again.

* * *

That afternoon Ginny and Harry took a long walk coming back as engaged people. Finally Harry had found the right words to ask her. Of course he had asked Mr. Weasley for the hand of his only daughter first. This made Arthur avoid his own daughter since he was horrible at keeping secrets like that. He simply did not want to spoil the moment for them. Although Harry had told her that their wedding had to wait until after the war since he did not want to leave her widowed Ginny was the happiest woman. When they came back to Grimmauld Place the girl ran straight to her mother and told her the whole story. A real smile was on the mother´s lips who had not smiled for real since the war had started. Tears of joy ran down their cheeks as Ginny lay in her mother´s arms. Now Harry would truly become a part of the Weasley family. Everyone congratulated them, even Ron though he was also jealous because his mother treated his friend more like a son than him. The small kitchen was still filled with joy and happiness only Hermione, the Malfoys and Moody were missing.

To tell her best friend of the good news Ginny left the group and found her in the library. Hermione still sat there with Draco, both reading quietly but a bookshelf occluded him. The red-head ran into the room and threw herself onto her friend. She hugged Hermione so tightly that the other woman could barely breathe. "Harry asked me to marry him! Eeeeeek!", she shouted out in glee. A short moment of shock then Hermione grinned and wrapped her arms around her friend. After they had embraced each other Ginny jumped up and presented her ring. "Look! Look! Isn´t it beautiful?" Slowly she took the girls hand and gently stroke the delicate ring. "Yes, it really is." It seemed like Ginny could no longer stop to giggle. "I know! I know! I know!", she squealed and jumped up and down. All her energy wanted to burst out at once. "Congratulations.",came a voice behind her. She swirled around. "Ah! Draco!" To his confusion she glomped him as well so he lightly patted her back not knowing what else to do. " I have to coin everyone! Whoooo!" Ginny stormed out of the room but you could still hear her giggle and shout.

* * *

This behavior of Ginny lasted the whole day and she willingly showed everyone her ring even four times if she felt like it. Also she was glued to Harry who could not stop smiling. They were even able to ignore Hilde. In the evening more members of the Order came by to celebrate. The kitchen was more crowded than it had ever been. The table was so loaded with food that the plates could barely fit on it. Draco went up to his mother´s room to bring her some food since Kreacher was too busy in the kitchen. Shortly after Hermione excused herself and waited in front of Mrs. Malfoy´s room for him. Draco was surprised to see hr there. "My mother is asleep.", he stated since he thought that Hermione probably wanted to go in. "Uh…", she hesitated. "I want to talk to you." "Oh.", was his answer and his thoughts began to race. He had no clue what she wanted from him. She rarely spoke to him at all mostly when they were alone in a room and she felt the uncomfortable silence. He followed her to her room.

This was the first time he entered it. It was small and had a lot of books in it as he had expected. The only picture was one of her with Harry and Ron probably taken the second year in Hogwarts. She sat down on her bed while he kept standing since there was no chair and he did not want to sit too close to her. " You should move out of Harry´s room." He simply raised an eyebrow and looked at her wondering. "I´m sure Harry and Ginny want to share his room again." "So you say I should share a room with you?", he asked unsure of what he thought of this idea. "No!" He knew that she did not like him very much but that she would say ´no ´ so vehemently shocked him. "Fred and his family will stay here so Ron can have his room." "Wouldn´t it be easier to let _Weasel_ have your room?" "I don´t want _them_ to." Draco felt that he should not have said anything for now she glared at him and the room became chilly. This thing between her and Ron really was heavy. "We are going to sleep in the living room." "Agreed."

* * *

Although everyone was in the mood to celebrate all night long they stopped around 2 a.m. and went home or to bed. Draco and Hermione had already gotten into their pajamas when Fred popped his head into the room. "Thanks, again for your room, Mione.", he winked at her and went away. Hermione had enlarged the armchair and Kreacher fussed around that he had no good blankets for ´Master Black ´. The house elf kept on asking him if he needed anything fully ignoring Hermione who prepared her armchair herself. "Oh, _Mistress Black_ would never forgive Kreacher letting the _Master_ sleep in the same room with a _Mudblood_.", the house elf whined as he began to hit his head against the floor. "Stop that!" Kreacher did as he was told. "Should Kreacher rather burn himself in the kitchen, Master Black?" No! Argh! Don´t hurt yourself and stop calling her a mudblood!" The elf´s eyes widened to twice the normal size. His hand trembled. "Good night, Master Black.", slowly he turned away. "Good night, Miss Hermione Granger." Both slid under their covers and Hermione switched the light off with a flick of her wand.

"Malfoy?", she asked to know if he was already asleep. "Yes?" "Why did you do that?" She could hear him turn around on the sofa. "I´ve changed if you have not noticed _yet_." Somehow this question upset him. He did everything to prove himself and still people saw him as his old self. Awkward silence. "Also I owe you." "What?", her voice was higher than usually and he could feel that she tried to look at him. "Well, it´s thanks to you that I´m still alive." Hermione did not respond to that. Ever since the Malfoy have showed up at Grimmauld Place she had only talked with Moody about it. It made her feel uncomfortable. She still did not know why she had not killed him. "Back then I really wanted to die but you spared my life and I could start a new one here. I never told you that before but I´m really thankful." Hermione fidgeted with her blanket. Never had she thought to hear a that honest thanks from Malfoy. She felt bad for mistrusting him. A long silence followed in which both of them turned about several times.

"I´m truly happy for Ginny.", she said to change the subject and to break the silence. "You are lying." "No, I´m not!", she protested and was dazzled by the light of his wand. Draco lay there pointing his wand at her, his gaze serious. "When she showed you the ring you looked at it sad and disappointed." She felt herself caught. It was true. For one second she had envied her friend. She always had thought that she would marry before her. "That´s not true.", she resisted not wanting Draco to know that he was right. "Then say it again and look me in the eye." His grey orbs reflected the light. She could not do it so she turned away grumbling: "Just think what you want." _Nox_. He had overdone it. He was close to falling asleep when he heard her say: "He has destroyed everything with his jealousy." Relieved that she was not mad at him he answered: "You deserve someone better than him." Since she did not answer he fell asleep without the haunting woman to visit him that night.

* * *

"Dark Lord.", Lucius addressed the man in front of the fireplace and bowed low. The light of the fire painted dark shadows on the man´s face so that he looked even more like a snake and with this more threatening. "Luciusss, I hope you are not here to wassste my time _again_." His glowing red eyes looked down at the man who trembled slightly. His inferiors feared him. Just what Voldemort wanted them to do. He was the mightiest wizard of this time and they should never forget that. "No, my Lord, I´m here to report you. I know of death eaters that are not as loyal as they pretend to be." Nagini hissed as she sidled through Lucius´ legs towards her master. "Who isss it?" "Blaise Zabini, my Lord, and Pansy Parkinson. They refuse to go on missions and talk badly behind your back, my Lord."

* * *

The next day Hermione was surprised as Kreacher took away her plate and replaced it with a silver one. She and Draco were the only ones with the fine Black plates so she stood out. Of course also Ron noticed it and snorted at the view eying Draco dangerously. When then Ginny excused herself from the shopping trip her brother spat: " Well, Hermione won´t mind being _alone_ with _Malfoy_." Draco put on his smirk. This time he would not hold back and stay silent. Moving his arm he put it around Hermione´s shoulder who sat next to him and pulled her closer. "I´m sure we will enjoy ourselves." His face quite close to hers he winked and his smirk grew even wider. "Don´t you think so too, _Hermione_?" She saw Ron out of the corner of her eyes. His face was red and he pressed his lips together in anger. A smirk just as vicious as Draco´s played on her lips and she said in a sweet tone: "Oh, yes."

**/well, this is a quite long chapter. Hope you liked it. In the next chapter Draco will be confronted with the muggle world and Hermione will learn to appreciate him some more**

**REVIEW,PLEASE!**


	10. inappropriate dress

Chapter 10: inappropriate dress

„Draco, we´ll leave now.", Hermione announced as she went into the living room to get him for their shopping trip. They both were wrapped into their winter cloaks. Hermione´s was black with brown fur and Draco´s was a simple grey one – lent from Harry since his own drew too much attention to it. Taking one step out of the house so that they would still be invisible Hermione turned to him. "Take my arm. We will apparate side-along." Draco hated to do that but still he put his hand around her wrist.

"Oh, I almost forgot.", she said and flicked her wand first at him then herself. Not able to see what she had done since she apparated promptly after that Draco closed his eyes avoiding the swirling sensation. Feeling solid ground under his feet he opened them again and saw into light blue eyes. The woman he looked at had really short straight black hair and thin lips. Seeing the way he looked at her Hermione explained: " I had to change our faces." Draco finally let go of her wrist and palpated his face. His nose felt bigger, his eyebrows bushier and he had a moustache. When they walked to London Waterloo train station he could view his reflection in some shop windows. Light brown hair, a more masculine angular face, dark eyes.

Since wizards rarely used trains Draco had only been to London station a few times. It was hard to stick to Hermione in the crowd of muggles. Also he was easily distracted by muggle things. When the woman got their tickets out of a big grey box Draco could not look away from the big destination board above which switched the announcements of the trains every minute. "We have to go to platform 1." Her voice ripped him from his dazzlement. They made their way through the crowd until they stood in front of a row of small doors. Hermione put a ticket into the slit in a grey box. "You have to take it and walk through.", she whispered to him. Uncertain he did what she instructed him and the pair of small doors opened for him. Hermione knew well how confusing muggle things could be for wizards. Even the simplest things seemed like miracles to Mr. Weasley. Wizards were really ignorant when it came to muggle things especially electricity. For Ginny it was always like a visit to the amusement park when she went shopping with Hermione.

In the train Draco sat next to Hermione his eyes locked on a glowing sign that said ´ Reading `. Although he felt uncomfortable asking questions he lent closer. "What is this?" "It says that we take the train towards Reading and it will change whenever we come near the next station so that we know where we have to get off." He simply nodded still not sure if he had understood what she had told him. When the first stop was announced he quickly had his hand on his wand in his pocket. To calm him down Hermione slightly touched his arm and smiled. A sign that everything was alright. Finally the_ voice _announced ´Staines´ where they exited so that Draco could relax.

On their walk to the shops he was quiet and wondered about all those muggle things. Not daring to ask Hermione further questions because it made him feel inferior he tried to look confident. He straightened up and put on a mask of indifference. Hermione should not think that the muggle world intimidated him. It took them several minutes and an almost accident when Draco overlooked the red light of the pedestrian lights to get into the pedestrian precinct. It was loud and crowded but because of the liveliness and the beautiful colors of the different booths the street had an appealing aura. Hermione pulled him towards her into a booth filled with all kinds of bags. "Help me choose a handbag for your mother." Between the bags a woman appeared smiling at them widely. "Oh, do you search for a present for your mother-in-law?", she asked addressing Hermione who simply nodded. "What is her favorite color?" Since Hermione knew close to nothing about Mrs. Malfoy she looked at Draco waiting for him to say something. "It´s blue.", he stated uncomfortable with the situation. _Why would this woman think that they were married? _When the seller turned around looking for a blue bag he bent over Hermione. "We are married now?", he murmured mystifyingly. "Yes, if she thinks so then we are. Just go with it.", Hermione hissed not to make the woman notice. When he still looked at her in disbelief she gave him a dig with the elbow. "Ow!" The woman turned quickly around looking if something had happened but Hermione had reacted fast hugging Malfoy´s arm tightly and putting on a fake smile. "So, what about these?" The woman presented two very different bags. One was light blue with delicate white embroidery the other one was night blue with pearls. Both were of small size. "That one.", Draco decided by pointing at the light blue one. "That will be 7,50 pounds, please." Hermione handed her the money and took the bag.

Once out of sight Hermione let go of his arm and shoved the bag into his hand. "Um, was it too expensive?", Draco asked taken aback by her action. Noticing that she had overreacted Hermione shook her head no. "Actually it was quite cheap. I just stopped pretending to be your wife since she can no longer see us." He lifted one eyebrow. "Why did you pretend to be in the first time?" A sigh. "It´s just the easiest way to go along with what people think." They walked along the street in silence until Draco asked out of the blue: "Why did you buy a bag for my mother anyways?" "It´s for our emergency plan.", Hermione stepped closer so that only he could hear her. "Since Snape told you of Grimmauld Place we want to make sure to be prepared for the case of intrusion." Draco studied the tiny bag in his hands. "Makes sense; but what do you need the bag for?" "I will enlarge the inside volume so that your mum can put all her things inside."

Next they want into a big shop where Hermione helped him to find out his muggle cloth size since she explained to him that fitted clothes were expensive and it took long to get some. They got him two new pairs of pajamas and one for his mother (figuring that she had the same site as Hermione), four pairs of jeans – two dark blue, two black-, sweaters, t-shirts, socks and underwear( which was the only thing Hermione did not help him to choose so she could get some stuff for Narzissa). In fact Hermione had not chosen one item for herself yet. Draco who was laden with shopping bags had a hard time in the crowd. "Aren´t you going to buy something for yourself as wel-?, he asked as Hermione suddenly came to a halt and he nearly bumped into her. In the window display was a female mannequin wearing a long red dress. "I want something from this shop.", she answered and entered the shop. Opening the door a bell rang and an elegantly dressed woman came towards them. "Oh, good lord!", she exclaimed as she saw Draco with all his shopping bags. "Let me put these down for you." Not letting him answer she snatched the bags out of his hands and put them away coming back right after that. "How can I help you?" "I need a dress for a formal ball." "Hmmmmm….. formal.", the woman mused. "So it should be a long dress." She scanned Hermione. "Turn around, please." Although she added the word ´please´ she said it as an order. Slowly Hermione turned around. When she faced the woman again she frowned and said: "Wait here."

Several minutes later she came back with a variation of dresses laid over her arm. Quickly she ushered Hermione into the fitting room telling Draco to sit down in the armchair facing it. After she had tried on three and had presented them all to Draco Hermione declared: "I think that´s it." "No, no, no. You will try all of them, dear; otherwise you will never know which one is the best." Finally exiting the fitting room wearing the last dress the woman asked: "So, which should it be then?" But instead of addressing Hermione the woman had turned to Draco. "I should choose?" Glancing at Hermione he could see that she was not pleased with what the seller demanded. He gulped his throat suddenly dry. "I liked the green one." The saleswoman locked eyes with him and smiled. "A gentleman you are choosing the dress that made her décolleté most prominent." Hot blood pumped into Hermione´s head. She felt embarrassed and angry at the same time. Her knuckles were white because she balled her hands into fists. There they stood. Hermione glaring at him with her cold eyes in her alarming red face and Draco with a hint of red on his cheeks trying to look as apologetic as he could. Without them noticing the seller had went to the cash till and had put the dress into another shopping bag. "How would you like to pay?" Suddenly Hermione changed to calm indifference ignoring Draco as she paid and walked out of the shop not waiting for him to grasp his shopping bags together.

* * *

On their way back Hermione neither talked to Draco not looked at him. This made him even more nervous than is she had yelled at him. It could only be the calm before the storm. Draco should learn this as soon as they arrived in Grimmauld Place. She violently pushed him through the hall into the living room. Fred and Lee Jordan who had come to visit his godchild George looked at them in confusion. Slamming the door into the guys´ nosy faces Hermione stomped towards Draco. "_You_.", she hissed narrowing her eyes dangerously as she came closer. He would have backed off but he already stood right in front of the armchair. "How dare you looking at my chest, you perverted creep." Her face slowly transformed to her real one making her look even more threatening. "I didn´t.", he tried to defend himself. "Oh,_ really_? Then, _please_, explain to me how the seller could have come to this conclusion?" Her high-pitched voice and how she moved in front of him made her look like his aunt Bellatrix to him – just as dangerous and crazy. Angered by her accusation he grabbed her by her shoulders. "Look, _Granger_, I just chose that dress because it´s green and I happen to like that color. So stop going all berserk on me. I would not want to look at your chest. And even if I did then it was only unconsciously and it´s _your fault_ anyway for dragging me into that damn shop." With a quick harsh movement she freed herself from his grip. "Don´t touch me, _Malfoy_!", she turned away from him almost freezing in the motion as she came to a halt near the door. Again her knuckles went white as she stomped towards the door. But instead of exiting the room she bent down, picked something from the floor and brought it close to her lips. "** FRED WEASLEY!**", she shouted into what looked like an ear in her hand and a loud grunt could be heard from outside the room. With her shopping bag in hand she stormed up the stairs revealing Fred and Lee smiling widely at Draco barely able to hold back their laughter.

* * *

The rest of the day Draco stayed with his mother to void anyone else. Narzissa was a lot stronger thanks to Kreacher and Hermione and could leave the room if only for a short time. To keep herself busy she tried to fix the Black Family Tree tapestry. When it was almost time for dinner he brought her up into her room to rest. Dinner was awkward. While Hermione kept silent, Ginny told Draco that he had chosen a nice dress and Fred fluttered his eyelashes at him while abusing oranges as boobs. "Oh Draco, baby, how do you like jugs.", came it from Lee who made his voice higher while holding oranges under his shirt. For that Angelina hit both of them on the back of their head. Silently he thanked Merlin that Weasel and his wife were not present. After that he went straight into the living room to go to sleep although he would have liked to read in the library but since Hermione was probably there that was impossible. Later that evening Hermione woke him by entering the room. "Malfoy, did you look at my chest or nor?", Draco who had not expected her to ever talk to him again took some time to think about his answer. "Maybe." He could hear her turn away from him almost feeling how she gave him the cold shoulder.

"For what do you need a dress anyways?" A long sigh. Rustling of the blanket. Hermione was facing the sofa again. "Cormac McLaggen is one of our informants and he insists on only talking to me. Whenever he knows something new he sends a card with date and place. He thinks it´s particular nice of him to always meet in muggle bars or as in this case at a muggle mask ball. Since I´m muggle-born he thinks that I will feel more comfortable that way." She sighed again. "Always he sends me an outfit that is quite inappropriate, that perv." Yet another sigh. "Last time he even sent matching underwear with it." Draco clicked his tongue. "And you call me a perverted creep." A short humorless laughter echoed in the room.

* * *

"Draco, Harry wants you to come into the kitchen.", Ginny announced and Draco left his mother with her tapestry fixing. In the kitchen everyone was sitting at the table seemingly waiting for him. Kingsley was the first to speak: "Mr. Malfoy, after your interrogation we had decided to monitor Blaise Zabini and Pansy Parkinson. As you had implied they seem to be reluctant to serve you-know-who. We have decided to go into their house and bring them to a safe place if they are willing to join us. We want you to come with us but be aware that your father is currently staying there because Malfoy Manor burnt down." "Wait, our house burnt down?", Draco interrupted visibly taken by surprise by these news. Shacklebolt proceeded with his calm voice: "It seems like your mother put the manor on fire – fiendfyre. Two burnt bodies were found inside. Apparently your father wants you-know-who to believe that you and your mother are dead." Malfoy had turned pale again and looked as if someone had punched him right into the stomach. A grimace of pain of his face. "We could understand if you don´t want to come with us.", Molly Weasley said pitying the man. "No!", Draco straightened up, his face proud. "I will come with you." He would not run away from his father instead he would face him and show that he is not like him. "Good, it will go down tonight."

**/ so that´s it for chapter 10. I hope you enjoyed the shooping trip. so now one question: should I make more passages and make them shorter in the chapter so you can read it easier?**

**Please, REVIEW**


	11. Reunion

_Thanks to those who put my story on alert:_

_-harlem syndicate-, ColleenMickyD, curiousbookworm, Hp-Lover323, , me3cats, SETO-KAIBA-LIFE, SinsarDubh, soccerg95, voldyismyfather, x Bluebell Flames x_

_and of course a BIG THANKS to those who have my story as a favorite:_

_-harlem synidacte-, curiousbookworm, NDJE92113, Nicnak24, pirateKitten11893, SETO-KAIBA-LIFE, voldyismyfather_

_you make me all so happy ^^ ))))))))))_

Chapter 11: Reunion

In every room of the house people made preparations for their _visit_ to Zabini´s house.

Mrs. Weasley, Fred and Tonks busied themselves with brewing potions in the kitchen much to the dislike of Kreacher.

A group of four – Kingsley, Harry, Lupin and Draco – made a plan and detailed map of the house in the tapestry room. Everything should be done quite quickly. They would apparate as close to the house as they could in groups of two persons. The second step would be entering the house and disarming Blaise, Pansy and Lucius. Only then would follow step three: the offer. The offer to join the Order was only intended for Blaise and Pansy. Draco had not asked why they would not offer his father the same since he knew his father so well and that he could not be trusted. In case of a battle they would retreat one partner casting protecting spells while the other one would use hexes and curses.

Teamed up were: Harry and Kingsley, Fred and Ginny, Angelina and Tonks, Lupin and Lee, ´Mad Eye ´ and Mr. Weasley, Draco and Hermione.

The ones not occupied with potions brewing and plan making put protection charms onto jackets or smaller objects that one could wear as jewelry or put into their pockets.

During lunch everyone was silent. Some of them kept reciting spells merely forming them with their lips, others went over the plan again and again. Not even Fred had a joke on his lips stoking Angelina´s hand as if he was afraid of not coming back. Afterwards Kingsley gathered everyone in the tapestry room to explain the plan. They would leave at 9.05 p.m. and enter the house approximately at 9.15 p.m.

* * *

Half an hour before they would depart Hermione approached Draco in the hall.

"Give me your hand.", she said and plainly held out hers.

Without a second thought he placed his left hand on top of hers. If she wanted to make an unbreakable vow with him he would be ready, she should not think that she could not trust him. Fumbling something out of her trouser pocket she revealed a small silver ring and put it onto his pinky. Obviously this ring was not meant for a man´s hand since it would only fit there.

"It´s enchanted and will keep you safe, well mostly."

"Thank you."

He wanted to draw his hand back when she took hold of it. Her hand felt burning hot against his.

"I´m not done yet." Again she pulled something out of her pocket. This time it was a necklace with a small red diamond as pendant. Instead of putting it around his neck she wrapped it around his wrist.

While doing so his sleeve slid up his arm and revealed the lower part of his Dark Mark. Quickly he put his hand on his skin to cover it. Hermione looked up at him but he avoided her eyes. He felt ashamed for what he had been and she could read that from his face. This _Mark _would stay on his skin forever. She pitied him. Softly she brushed away his hand.

"It´s okay." Pulling his sleeve back down she gave him a warm smile of comfort. Draco appreciated it but it would still take him long to accept his past and the person he had been. "You better make sure that we make it out of there save and sound, Draco. The protection and counter spells are up to you." She gave his hand a light squeeze before she went into the kitchen.

* * *

The wood around Zabini´s house protected them from being noticed. Light was on on the ground and first floor. Casting disillusion charms they approached the house. Four of them took the front door the rest went for the back door. Quickly the protection charms of the house were nullified and with a simple _Alohomora_ they were able to open the doors. Under the protection of the disillusion charm they could get into the house unnoticed and soon found Lucius Malfoy arguing with Blaise in the sitting room. Mr. Malfoy yelled at him so loudly that they could understand each word outside the room.

"_This is no LOYALTY!_ You are as worthless as muggles! The Dark Lord fights for our pureblood rights and what do you _do_? You don´t even help!" They had a that heated argument that they did not notice the doors being opened slowly.

"Lucius, we want to _protect_ our son. _You_ of all people should understand us-" Lucius had stormed towards him and shook him by the shoulders.

"_Me_? Why should I understand such _filth_ as you?"

Azkaban and the struggle for acceptance by the Dark Lord had left its traces. His face was wrinkled, pale and old. A glint of craziness in his eyes. Forcefully Zabini shoved the man away.

"Your son and your wife had to die because of _him_." For one second shock was painted on Lucius´ face but then a grin appeared.

"_Sacrifices_! When this is over they will be celebrated as heroes!"

Laughter filled the room and Hermione felt a knot in her stomach. She could hear the quickened breath of Draco behind her. There was no way she would be able to tell how he felt right now.

"In his _death_ Draco gained true glory but _you_ and your whore will be punished!" Even thought Blaise held Lucius be the collar the man did not stop snickering.

Hermione felt Draco´s wand tight next to her shoulder obviously pointed at his father. It shivered slightly. In the other door the others moved as well, the contours softly lit be the fire of the fire place.

"What have you done?" Zabini´s voice was threatening. His hands tightened around the collar, his eyes icy.

"I had to report to him." Not frightened by Blaise at all Mr. Malfoy smiled. Only when he hit the floor that smile was washed away and replaced by a hateful glare.

When Blaise drew his wand a red light was shot out of the door and disarmed him. Finally it was time to make a move. They had heard enough. Revealing themselves they stepped into the room. Ropes come out of Tonk´s wand and chained Lucius. Harry with Zabini´s wand in hand stepped closer.

"We are here to make you an offer." His voice was calm and low.

Scared by the people pointing their wands at his Blaise flinched. He felt like a rabbit surrounded by hungry wolves.

"Put your wands down.", Kingsley ordered seeing his this did not help with their plan. "Zabini, we can bring you to a safe place." Again Lucius snickered."I knew it! You traitor!" His eyes were fixed at Zabini.

"Shut it!", Moody, the person closest to him, said and cast the _Silencio_ charm on him. The mouth was still moving but no sound escaped his throat.

"What if I say no?", Although Zabini was more than willing to accept help he did not trust them. "We will leave.", came the answer from Remus Lupin. "And burn this house with me like you did with Malfoy Manor?", he shouted and backed away further.

A hand was placed on Hermione´s shoulder and she turned around to look into Draco´s altered moustache face. "Hermione, my face." She knew what he meant and with a flick of her wand his face was back to normal.

"Nobody killed me." Slowly he took a few steps forward so that he stood in the circle of Order members with his friend.

"That can´t be.", Blaise breathed staring at him.

"I´m alive, Blaise." Draco approached his friend but he shouted: "Stay away from me!"

Abruptly Draco came to a halt and looked at Zabini seriously. He rolled up his sleeve and showed his Dark Mark. "Is this proof enough?" _Tsk_. Zabini clicked with his tongue and did the same. Zabini´s mark was of darker colors and the snake moved more vividly. Hermione could have punched herself this moment for not telling Draco what his mother had done.

"Nice imitation you have there.", Zabini spat as he pulled his sleeve down. _Petrificus Totalus_. Freezed in his motion Blaise seemed like a statue his eyes still glaring at Draco´s wand. "I´ll give you proof." It took him only few steps to stand right in front of Blaise. Only inches separated Draco´s lips from Zabini´s ear as he whispered something. When he was done he stepped back and released his friend from the body-bind spell. To everyone´s surprise Zabini flung his arms around Draco.

_**BOOM**_.

A loud noise disturbed the reunion scene and everyone had their wands ready. Footsteps could be heard from the entrance hall. "Oh, Lucius, where are you?" It was the voice of Bellatrix Lestrange. She was not alone.

Quickly Harry gave Zabini his wand back. They had to trust him after all he took his reaction to whatever Malfoy might have told him as acceptance of his offer. "Where is Pansy?", Draco whispered the question. "Upstairs with Hector."

To get to the stairs they had to walk through the entrance hall which meant facing the Death Eaters. Shacklebolt gave orders. Draco, Hermione, Zabini, Harry and Ginny were to go upstairs to get Pansy and the boy while the others tried to fight the Death Eaters.

With a flick of Hermione´s wand Draco´s face was altered again and they followed Moody, Lupin and Tonks into the entrance hall where green and red lights shot through the room.

Someone had already gone up the stairs. They had caught a glimpse of this person just in time. From the stature and the way the person under the Death Eater cloak walked Draco knew who it was as well as Blaise: _Crabbe_.

Zabini quickly separated from them and ran up the stairs. His mind was filled with fear and cruel scenes in which Crabbe tortured Pansy. The others of his group had no time to worry about the battle surrounding them. They had to keep up with Blaise. Arriving at the top of the stairs there was no sign of Blaise.

Light fell into the dark hallway from a slightly open door.

"Watch this, _Hector_, see how I make your traitor father regret!", it was Crabbe´s murdering voice. 

_Crucio._

The light changed its color to red. The groans and screams made Hermione feel cold, shivers running down her spine. It almost turned her blood to ice. Such a horrible sound. Fast they closed the gap between them and the door. Ginny blasted the door sending Crabbe fly.

Pansy had pressed herself into one corner of the room keeping a hand before the boy´s eyes she held protectively in her arm. She shivered and sobbed not able to avert her eyes from the inert body on the floor. Although she was close to a nervous breakdown she still had the will to protect her son so she pointed her wand at them.

"Stay away.", Pansy pressed out. Harry´s eyes wandered from Pansy to Crabbe who lay there motionless and back.

"We are here to help." Her face showed distrust and she kept pointing at them. "Mu…Mummy.", the boy whispered and pushed his mother´s hand aside. He looked at each one of them, his eyes widened in fear. As his gaze arrived on his father he stopped and tears gathered.

"Daddy?" Again Pansy wanted to put her hand in front of his eyes but he struggled against it. "Daddy!", he exclaimed as Blaise tried to move towards them and freed himself to run to his father´s side.

Only then could they see that Pansy was heavily pregnant. Hermione heard Draco gasp and for one second he had forgotten about the boy and Zabini. Never had he seen Pansy like this: so desperate, so confused and so sad. Pansy rarely cried too proud to show weakness. Stepping forward to comfort her Draco only made her point the wand at his chest.

"Stay back.", she cried out fiercely. Of course she was scared of him after all he had the face of a complete stranger. He turned around to ask Granger to take the spell off him but before he could even open his mouth she shook her head knowing what he wanted her to do.

This was bad. They could not risk to safe her by force but still they could not wait for her to come to her senses and follow them. Any time another Death Eater could make his way up the stairs.

Harry tried to come up with a solution when his thoughts were interrupted by a weak voice." Pansy…you have to trust them." Zabini had finally found his strength to stand up although he looked like smashing onto the floor again any second. In his eyes lay determination. Slowly he came closer to Pansy. His legs felt weak but he had to pull himself together. If he did not give Pansy the certainty to trust these people nobody would be able to make her move even an inch.

"P-Pansy…" He spoke seemingly in great pain and it took him a great effort to say anything. In no time Pansy was next to him and supported him. "Take Hector. We are leaving."

Picking up her son she walked towards the others willing to follow them. It did not take Harry long to make a plan and so he gave the orders: "Ginny and I go first, Pansy you walk behind us, Hermione will go last and…", he was not sure if he should call Malfoy by his name. Deciding that it would be best not to confuse Pansy any more Harry continued: "…and you help him walk."

Everyone did as they were told. Draco pulled his friend´s arm around his shoulders and tried to steady him. With the shaky Blaise they could only walk slowly. Harry and Ginny had their eyes fixed on the stairs while Hermione kept her wand pointed at Crabbe. The weight of Blaise almost pulled Draco down and he would definitely be glad when the whole thing was over. Zabini was so weak that Draco almost shouldered all of his weight on himself. He did not even have the strength to hold onto his friend.

They had reached the door and put one foot out into the hallway when Draco tripped. "Shit!", he hissed as he caught Blaise. That single word caused Hermione to look away from Crabbe for just mere seconds. Yet those seconds were enough for Crabbe to gather his strength.

* * *

**/ actually this shoud not have been the end of this chapter but with all the things happening and things that will happen the chapter was just too long so I decided to end it here: Mayor cliffhanger I know *muhahahahahahahaha***

**hope you liked it.**

**I always appreciate alerts and faves and I also take some time to look at your favorite stories and read those I like. Like this I have found several nice Dramione stories. **

**I recommend reading "Aurelian" by BittyBlueEyes, "Isolation" by Bex-chan and "Narcissa´s Dying wish" by Cadistar**

**and for those who like sex and fun : "Babysitting Blues" by scarlettcat**

**REVIEW PLEASE ^^**


	12. it should be you

Chapter 12: it should be you

A green light shot right past Hermione and hit Blaise in the back. Draco caught a glimpse of the green light and the body of his friend suddenly tensed and weakened in no time. He was paralyzed. The _Avada Kedavra_ lingered in their ears. Blaise exhaled one last time as if someone had pushed all the air out of his lungs and for a split second his eyes locked with Draco´s before they got glazed looking into nowhere. His body glided from Draco´s grip and with a loud _thud_ hit the floor.

"No!" It was not Pansy who screamed but Draco and he was out for revenge. Seeing the anger in Draco´s eyes Crabbe smiled wickedly. It brought him joy to see what his unforgivable had caused.

"I´m gonna kill you!", Draco growled. He stomped back into the room.

"Not if I´ll kill you fi-" _Stupefy_. Before he could end his sentence Hermione´s spell hit him and he was stunned.

Yet Draco was not satisfied and kept his wand pointed at him breathing rapidly.

"You are dead.", he pushed through gritted teeth and was ready to perform the most unforgivable curse. A soft touch. Hermione placed her hand on his wand hand.

"You are better than that, Draco.", she breathed. Pressing his eyes shut he tried to calm down knowing that she was right. Her gentle caress of his hand helped to sooth him – if only a bit.

Although he knew that she was tight he hated her for interfering and ripped his hand away and stomped outside.

In the hallway Pansy stood shocked. No tears would fall, she had cried too much. It felt like someone had cut a piece out of her heart and now there was a gaping hole. Something wet on her neck brought her back to reality. Hector laid his head on her shoulder and silently cried. Right, she could not be weak; she had to be strong for her son. So Pansy held her son firmly and steeled herself for what else might happen. Her wand hand had stopped trembling. Blaise´s death would not be worthless. Nobody would harm her son. Knowing that she cannot make the unforgivable curse undone Pansy turned away not wanting to remember her lover like this. With Draco and Hermione right behind her they moved on.

Nearly arriving at the stairs Harry made a sign to stop. He had heard footsteps coming upstairs. In no time Hermione cased a shield charm. The shield had just made its way down to their feet when curses came from the stairs. The attackers could not be seen yet which left them waiting. A group of three, protected by a shield charms as well, stepped into the hallway. Of one thing Draco was sure: the person in the middle was Goyle. Protectively Hermione and Draco stepped in front of Pansy since the stunned Crabbe could not harm her. For which seemed like minutes full of tension they just stood there ready to fire curses at each other.

"The boy who lived, the Dark Lord will be very happy when I bring you to him, Potter." It was Goyle.

"Ha! Don´t be so sure of yourself, Goyle." Harry knew the voice of Goyle too well from his time in Hogwarts. From behind him Harry could hear Hermione mumble something. He did not need to understand the words she said; he already knew that she was about to break the Death Eaters´ shield charm. A triumphant smile appeared on his lips.

"I´m not afraid of you." Harry had to keep up the conversation with Goyle otherwise they would realize what Hermione was doing and no shield charm was an advantage for them.

"Oh, really?", he hissed. "Maybe you are not afraid but your girlfriend sure is." Moving his wand from Harry to Ginny Draco could almost see Goyle´s smile.

He turned this into one of his sick games. This action took Harry by surprise and he gritted his teeth in anger.

"You are afraid to fight _me_ so you point your wand at _her_? Pathetic." Goyle did not care one bit about the insult.

"What about we all point at her?" The two other Death Eaters to his sides snickered and pointed at Ginny, too.

Although Ginny kept her face emotionless Harry could feel her growing fear. Silently he begged Hermione to speak faster. He did not know how long he would be able to stay cool and refrain from hexing Goyle´s sorry behind. Seeing how Potter glared at him and hearing his labored breathing Goyle snickered. Torturing people was his greatest joy even if it was just mentally not physically which did not mean that he did not plan to do the latter.

"Potter, I don´t know if you heard of it but no shield charm can protect you from the death curse." The snickering of the Death Eaters became louder and Ginny could not keep her face emotionless. Fear was written all over it. Strained Harry listened for Hermione to end her chanting.

"Avada Ke-", Goyle could not finish the curse because just in this moment Hermione stopped whispering.

"_Sectusempra!_" Although Harry had believed that no one deserved to be hit by this curse he had changed his mind and fired it at Goyle mercilessly. The two Death Eaters were stunned by Draco and Ginny.

Blood soaked Goyle´s cloak and he stumbled backwards stifling sounds escaping his throat. The floor covered by his blood Goyle slopped and lay in the red pool. His flesh was gushed open with long deep slits as if someone had attacked him with a big knife.

Stepping over his victim Harry crushed his wand with his foot and gave Goyle one last hateful glare before he went on. Ginny followed his hesitatingly not comfortable with the thought of Harry killing someone.

Pansy on the other hand could not mind less about the scum to her feet dying. And she hoped he did. This was justice. The metallic taste of blood was as sweet as sugar on her tongue. On purpose she stepped onto his torso, the cracks of his rips like music in her ears, to follow her protectors.

Hermione, who knew very well what the curse did from when Harry had told her about it, had already started to whisper a spell to stop the blood loss when Draco grabbed her arm and violently dragged her along.

"Let go of me.", she hissed in attempt to free herself.

His grip only tightened. She began to struggle more but that only made her arm hurt under his narrowing grip. Fed up with her he pulled her towards him, faces very close, his eyes locked with hers.

"He deserves worse." It was a low growl.

Something in his stormy eyes made her stop to fight back. Never had she seen him like this. Pure hatred. His breath against her skin made her shudder. For the first time in her life did she, Hermione Granger, fear Draco Malfoy. Daunted Hermione broke their eye contact and walked up to Pansy.

Slowly they descended the stairs to find themselves in the middle of battle. Except for Kingsley who fought one on one with Lucius Malfoy everyone had stayed teamed up. They had been lucks. With their numbers of people they easily outnumbered the Death Eaters. Still they could not risk to become reckless and slack off. After all three of the most dangerous ones were among their enemies: Bellatrix Lestrange, Fenrir Greyback and Lucius Malfoy. You could positively feel touch the tension in the room.

A missed curse passed them. The green light of it meant death. Every second they stayed here was one second too much.

Several of Lupin´s spells hit Greyback and the werewolf went to his knew with an angry howl. The next moment he clutched his head in pain and yelped. One down four remained.

Between shooting curses at Lucius Malfoy Kingsley found the time to look behind him. "Harry, take her to safety!", he ordered harshly and was barely able to block Lucius´ spell.

Not knowing if there would be any reinforcement Harry decided that it would be best for Draco and Hermione to come with them. Clearly the others did not need them since now Kingsley and Mad Eye shot curses at Bellatrix while Arthur Weasley kept the shield up.

Their group fled through the back door. Outside it was pitch black and the wood where they could apparate from was still far away.

Unbelievable that the drums of their heartbeats could not be heard. Adrenalin rushed through their bodies which made them shoot curses into nowhere whenever they thought they had heard or seen something. Funny thing what fear and darkness combined made you see. A bush suddenly became a chubby Death Eater which was blasted by a _Confringo_ from Ginny as was one small tree. Hermione almost shrieked when she thought that some dark figure moved next to her which turned out to be nothing.

After all they made their way to the woods with no complications. Harry and Ginny apparated side along with Pansy and Hector as soon as their feet had touched save ground.

The crackling sound of fire buzzed in the air as fire in shape of a phoenix rose above the house. The sudden light dazzled Draco and he protected his eyes with his arm.

This was when Hermione stumbled on the uneven ground and fell. She fell and landed tight in front of a black pair of shoes slightly covered by a black robe. Death Eater. Too slow she soon found herself floating in the air without her wand.

"Snape.", she gasped.

Since the incident on the astronomy tower Hermione had not seen her former teacher once. He had not changed much. Still the same robes, the same hooked nose and the same patronizing look of his empty dark eyes.

"Miss Granger.", he snarled and his eyes wandered from her to Draco who pointed his wand at him. Studying Malfoy´s face a smirk crawled upon his thin lips.

"For the smartest witch of your age you sure have no imagination. You need to improve your facial altering spell and stop with those ridiculous moustaches." His tone wass teasing and Draco almost expected him to add: _"ten points from Gryffindor."_

Surprised when Snape´s face showed friendliness, well, at least Draco knew that this was his friendly face while it might look like a pained expression to everyone else, Draco let his wand sink one inch.

"Draco, I hope you feel better within the Order."

The screams of Bellatrix´s famous temper tantrums could even be heard where they stood. "Well, I think I did not come here in time and missed you." With saying this he let Hermione slump to the ground and walked past them sighing. Almost as if by accident Snape pushed Draco towards Hermione to help her up. Too surprised with what just had happened she let herself be guided into the wood and was still speechless when they stood on the step in front of Grimmauld Place.

* * *

Harry, Ginny and Pansy were already in the kitchen. All three of them were silent; only the sobs and whimpers of Hector and Molly rummaging to cook something could be heard.

Finally everything that had happened dawned on Pansy: she was on her own and had to depend on people she had despised in school. Her former friends were her enemies. She felt lost. Everything she had believed in seemed wrong. The world she once knew laid in pieces before her.

Harry felt horrible for what he had done. He had used dark magic against a person and the worst was that it had felt so right to do it.

From the kitchen they could not hear the typical _clack_ of apparition. When Hermione and Draco entered the room Pansy did not look up. Only when Draco stood tight in front of her wandered her eyes up his body and stared into his grey eyes.

Disbelieve was written all over pansy´s face. This look was soon replaced with anger. She stood up and began hitting Draco with her fists, repeating over and over: "It should be you! You should be dead!" Draco let her do it. The physical pain was nothing compared to the psychical. Her punches did not hurt him. Instead of grabbing her wrists to stop her he wrapped his arms around her in an attempt of an embrace. Her punching faded and she began crying against his chest while he rubbed her back and kissed her forehead.

**/ I hope you can see why I devided chapter 11 into two parts. The fighting between the Order and the Death Eaters on the ground floor is not that important for this chapter but I promise there will be a huge fighting scene ... you just have to wait. Yes, it´s so clichee that the two werewolfs fight but I like it.**

**One of my next chapters will be a _christmas_ chapter and I have not yet decided if there will be presents for Draco. _So it´s up to you!_ Should he get presents? If yes what and from whom?**

**Anyone seen the new Planet of Apes movie? It´s so funny how Tom Felton plays a character that is so much like Draco Malfoy. Mean, mistreating apes. I espacially had to laugh when he said "Don´t touch me you filthy ape." he could have said mudblood instead. And the cookies he is eating sure are from his mum. XDDDDDDDD**


	13. Leave

Chapter 13: Leave

Everyone had returned save and sound that night. Although they had only rescued Pansy and her son it was still a great victory for them. Maybe soon other Death Eaters would change sides since now they knew that they would get help. From what Draco had told them there were a lot of people who only joined the Dark Lord out of fear.

Pansy had poured out her heart to Draco although they were surrounded by people she did not want to hear but it had been kept in her heart for too long to wait any second longer. She told him how much she had missed him and how sad she had been when she had believed that he was dead. All her worries about Hector´s and Blaise´s safety she had; the torture and threatening of the Dark Lord just stumbled out her mouth.

She talked so much that the hours flew by and she only ended it because she lacked the energy to move her lips and keep her eyes open.

Draco had enlarged the couch so that Pansy and Hector could fit on it as well. He knew that Pansy hated to share a room with people she did not particularly like.

Although Hermione wanted to confront Malfoy with what had happened that night she decided that it was not the time for it.

Watching the three of them sleep she could not believe that Malfoy could be such a fearsome person when he held Pansy in his arm with such a peaceful look on his face. They looked like a strange, yet very happy family.

* * *

The next morning Fleur arrived with her little daughter Camille. The girl clearly had inherited the veela-like beauty of her mother. Only the freckles proved that she was a Weasley.

"Bonjour, maman.", she greeted Mrs. Weasley cheerfully and placed a kiss on each cheek.

The mood lightened and everyone could smile. Fleur´s veela genes sure were wonderful on mornings like that. She could even force Ginny into a conversation although she was normally quite grumpy in the mornings.

Fleur was nice to everyone except to Hilde. That aversion could be easily noticed by how Fleur called Ginny and Angelina _sœur_ (French for sister) while she called Ron´s wife by her name. Also she made sure that Camille did not sit too close to Sieglinde.

Right after Camille´s birth Fleur had moved back to France and lived there with Bill and some French supporters of the Order. Now she was here for a short visit to her family and to fetch Pansy.

Unlike Draco she would not stay at Grimmauld Place. Her being pregnant and a mother had made the Order decide that Pansy would be committed to the care of Fleur.

So when Pansy finally made her entrance to the kitchen with Hector Fleur jumped up from her chair and surprised her with a big hug.

"Pansee! Nice to meet you!" To the Weasley´s surprise Pansy smiled slightly.

Despite Blaise nobody had been that kind and warm towards her for a long time. Also she felt that now that she was a blood traitor she could be more relaxed.

Draco walked in with a sleepy Hector on his arm. The boy yawned and rubbed his eyes but as soon as his eyes fell on Fleur he was enchanted by her veela charm.

"Mummy, her hair is gold.", he gasped and tried to reach one of her strands. Fleur giggled slightly and took Hector from Draco.

"Good morneeng, petite marmotte (french for sleepyhead)." She gave him a peck on the cheek before she put him down.

At his puzzled gaze Camille giggled and repeated her mother´s words and gave him a peck on the cheek as well. Unlike Fleur the little girl spoke English without even the slightest hint of a French accent. After this they all sat down and had breakfast.

* * *

The afternoon had passed with Fleur telling them about Bill and the French part in this war, how the numbers of applicants had increased rapidly, how the burning phoenix was seen more often and how Death Eaters seemed to be retreating from their country.

After Fleur felt like she had said everything important she simply stated: "So, I theenk eet´s time for us to leeve, Pansee." Taken aback Pansy stared at her with her mouth agape.

"What?", she asked.

"You deed not know? You and ´ector weel come wiz me to France." Pansy gave Draco an uncertain and pleading look and his face hardened at once towards Fleur.

"Why can´t she stay here at Grimmauld Place?"

"Eet ees way to crowded here, these ees not good for ze child. At ´ome ´ector well ´ave ´is own room and eet ees save zere." Not satisfied Draco hit the table with his fist.

"It is saver for them to be here.", he barked at her. Indignantly snorting Fleur raised her voice.

"No! Een France eet ees ze safest! Zey well come wiz me!" Draco became furious

"They´ll stay here with me. I will take care of them!" Fleur stood up and stomped her foot.

"You come wiz us to France with eell maman. Eet well be better for ´er as well.", she now shouted at him and her tone was commanding.

The mention of his mother made Draco think. For several seconds he just stared at her pondering if she was right. In the end he came to the decision that it would indeed be the best for his mother.

He sighed and repied: "Fine, we will come with you to France." Even before the triumphant smile could fully spread on Fleur´s lips Narzissa´s words stopped it.

"I´m not going anywhere." Nobody had noticed her standing in the door. She had been in the tapestry room once again as she heard Fleur´s shouting and had come to the source of the noise.

"Mother.", Draco breathed.

"Draco, I cannot understand how you can make such a decision without me.", she scolded as she neared them.

"But why?" It was all that could come to Draco´s mind in this moment.

"Only Miss Granger here can truly help ease my pain and I doubt that she would be willing to go to France so I´m staying here as well where everyone has taken good care of me. " Narzissa placed her hand gently on Hermione´s shoulder and gave her a trusting smile.

Pulling the chair next to Hermione out, she sat down and poured herself a cup of tea. No sugar, only a little milk.

"However…", she broke the silence after taking a sip of her cup, "… you can choose to go with Pansy and _her_ son. I would understand that."

The woman studied the small boy warily still not over it that Pansy had dared to cheat on her son To Mrs. Malfoy the boy was a bastard and she would think of her son as a fool if he chose the woman who had cheated him over his own mother.

While taking another sip she kept her eyes on her son. From how he looked she knew that he had already made the right decision. Although his face may seem blank to the others Narzissa could see that he felt responsible towards that whore and her bastard but also his loyalty towards his mother.

For her it was unnecessary to stay any longer since she already knew the outcome and was tired so she turned to the women to her right: Hermione.

Since the night of Draco´s almost death Narzissa saw something angelic in the woman and her blood did not matter at all to her. For Mrs. Malfoy the young witch was better than any pureblood girl. "Would you be so kind to accompany me to my room, Hermione?" Hermione nodded her head yes and they left the room.

Draco stared at the door and was silent for minutes. Finally he sighed and ran his finger through his long hair.

"Pansy, I need to talk to you.", he announced and stood up ready to leave the room to have a private talk.

Pansy followed him although she already knew what he would tell her: he would not come with her to France. Draco stopped in the hallway next to the stairs and turned to look at Pansy. His eyes were serious and sad. Gently he reached out and caressed her cheek. She leaned into his touch and closed her eyes to take in his warmth.

"Forgive me. I –", he started to say but was cut off as Pansy put her finger over his lips to silence him.

"Shush. I understand Draco, and I´m not mad at you." The man relaxed and softly kissed her finger. He wrapped his strong arms around her and pulled her small frame close.

"Oh, Pansy, I feel horrible. I´ve done so much wrong to you. I want to make up for everything. But…. But I can´t leave my mother alone."

Pansy took a step back to look in his silver eyes.

"Idiot." Her tone was soft and kind and contrary to what she said she smiled which confused him.

"You´ve done everything right. Blaise told me what you had told him when I gave birth to Hector.", her voice wavered and she wiped away a tear. "It´s because you let me go that I could be happy with Blaise even if it was just for a short time. Although I have lost him I still have part of him with Hector and…", she caressed her round belly smiling the smile of a loving mother, " … this little girl."

She took Draco´s hand and placed it on her belly. "Draco, it´s a part of Blaise. Don't worry I won´t be lonely." Draco nodded in acceptance and could have sworn that the baby kicked his hand.

"I guess this is good bye then." Slowly he removed his hand from under hers.

"Yes, it is.", she replied.

"I love you, Draco." Draco smiled as a warm feeling spread in his body. Except for his mother nobody had told him that for a long time and coming from Pansy it meant a lot to him.

"I love you, too.", he breathed while he bent down to place a chaste kiss on her lips. When their lips separated he added: "_I always will_."

Upstairs Hermione froze standing at the stairs. Although he had not spoken very loud she had listened to the last part of their conversation.

Only when she heard their steps move away did she descend the stairs with a strange feeling in her breast. It was a burning sensation accompanied with light pain. She placed her hand on it and frowned not understanding what this meant. It could not be that his words had affected her.

Taking several long breathes she made her way to the kitchen. From the other side of the door she could hear the people talk. The voices seemed happy. It felt like an invisible wall. Hermione only stood steps away from the door yet she could not bring herself to join them. Instead of going in she stood there and listened until she thought someone had gotten up from the chair. She could hear more chairs being pushed back to stand up while she hurried away. The solitude of the library was welcoming and so she stayed there to read her favorite book- _Hogwarts A History_.

* * *

Pansy and Hector had left hours ago and Draco was still lying on the sofa staring at the ceiling. After their talk he had not accompanied her to the kitchen but had gone straight into the living room. Even when he had heard them taking their leave had he not gone back. Her scent was only faint and he enjoyed every last breath of it. He knew that if he had seen them leave he would have tried to stop them although he had come to the decision that it indeed would be better for them in France. So he just lay there and thought of all the good time he had had with Pansy.

The noise of a door being thrown shut ripped him out of his memories and he found a furious Hermione stomping towards him.

"Granger, never heard of a door handle?", he taunted her annoyed by her sudden and noisy entrance.

"Shut it, _Malfoy_!", she spat.

Surely staying in the library and brooding over what had happened the last night had gotten Hermione quite agitated. Over and over she had told herself that she was right and that she could not let him get back to his old self. The slimy Slytherin prick. As she earned a sneer from him she only got angrier and her eyes became mere slits as she intensified her glare. She was so loaded with energy that she did not sit down to have a qualm conversation with him but stormed past him glaring into the cold, dark fire place.

"We need to talk.", she stated her tone hard.

"About what?", Draco snapped not liking her tone or the way she behaved. This was going into s direction he did not want.

Hermione spun around glaring at him with heaving shoulders. "_Yesterday._" He immediately understood what she meant and his jaw clenched.

"What about it?", he pressed through gritted teeth not even trying to suppress his anger in his voice.

"You wanted to_ kill_ Crabbe." In one swift movement Draco was on his fet and staling towards his accuser.

"I already told you that he deserved worse." Again he was his fearsome self and Hermione stepped back although she had sworn to herself to not give up that easily that time.

"Why are you so heartless?", she charged at him and was shocked at how his face became even fiercer.

"How _dare_ you. _You_ know _nothing_ about me." His face was close so she could see the hatred in his stormy grey eyes and his voice was threatening and low.

"He was your _friend_.", she argued but she could only find the strength to speak up to him not to stand up to him so she backed further away. For the split time of a second his face turned blank before a smirk appeared on it.

"So if he had not been my friend you would have let me kill him?", he laughed humorlessly.

"He would have killed me without batting an eye. Believe me.", he told her sardonically.

"Still the old goody-goody Granger." A deep growl escaped his throat.

Her back touched the wall and she could not move away sine he had placed his arms at her sides against the wall. Slowly, very slowly he leaned closer until his lips were at her ear brushing it slightly. A shiver ran down her spine and she felt cold.

"I would have put a fast ending to him but actually… actually he deserves worse. I should cut him into pieces while he can smell his own flesh burning and when he is close to death I should heal his wounds and repeat it until I grow tired of it and let him die a slow and painful death lying in his own blood. And do you know why that is?"

Hermione stiffened. The picture he had drawn with his words was just too gruesome.

"That´s because it´s what he takes joy in.", he whispered into her ear with his husky voice, his hot breath against her skin sending goose bumps over her body. She could feel tears gather in her eyes.

"That´s too cruel. Nobody should suffer through that.", Hermione managed to breathe. Draco leant back and grey met brown.

"I know.", he said and gently brushed a loose strand of hair behind her ear.

"But you have to stop believing in the good of simply everyone." Although his expression was neutral his eyes were merciless and hers widened in shock.

A Stinging feeling at the back of her neck. A grey curtain was drawn before her eyes then a bright flash and in the next moment she was flooded with memories and emotions that were not her own. The quickly it had started the quickly it ended and she found herself still standing with her back against the wall, her whole body quivering, her cheeks wet and Draco breathing heavily in front of her.

She could not speak she could only whimper. Draco´s head came forward and their foreheads touched. He had pressed his eyes closed and tried to calm his breathing. Feeling the woman tremble against him made him feel a pang of guilt.

"I´m sorry.", he said, his voice weak. Looking into her eyes he could see the fear and sadness he had inflicted on her. Forcefully he punched the wall and growled in frustration before storming out of the room leaving the sobbing mess that was called Hermione to slide to the floor.

**/ sorry for not updating sooner but I curently work again**

**and just so you know the next update might just take as long because I´m still working and September 2nd is my 20th birthday and I will be away on that weekend ... so if you want to make me a present just review because your oppinion is my biggest joy.**

**So what did you think about the private talk between Draco and Pansy? And what about the Draco/Hermione moment? Let me know in a review**

**just as a reminder: Should Drcao get a present for christmas or not and when yes what and from whom? Let me know !**


	14. Talking

**I´m so sorry for the late update but actually this chapter and the ones following are mere fillers which I will use to develop their relationship further and to tie up some loose ends and of course to give you more time to vote in the poll you can find in my profile (Draco´s christmas present). I´ll be so relieved when those chapters are over because that means the McLaggen meeting draws closer and so does their love.**

**Thanks to everyone who still sticks with this story ^^ and for all faves and alerts. It really means a lot to me**

Chapter 14: Talking

For hours Draco merely sat in the chair next to his mother´s bed and watched her chest rise and fall in a steady rhythm. Narzissa was asleep.

Full of guilt Draco had fled the scene hiding in his mother´s room. Before that he had carried those horrible memories of what Crabbe and Goyle were capable around with him. It was a heavy burden but he would not have told his mother or anyone else because he knew what this knowledge did to his mind – no his soul.

Everything was so sickening and even to watch what his two former _friends_ enjoyed caused Draco pain. All these years Draco had seen things others could not imagine being possible and could not interfere. The fear for his own life was too great. If he had done something he would have been on the receiving end of Crabbe´s and Goyle´s _games_.

Sure, he had wished to talk about it with someone but forcing all of it at once on Granger was despicable. Performing the cruciatus curse on her would have been less horrible.

Usually he would drown himself with fire whiskey by now and destroy the furniture in his rage but that would only worsen his current situation. By what he had done to the woman he had proven himself unworthy of the Order – a mere Death Eater.

Draco had never understood the house elves´ urge to punish themselves for doing something wrong until this moment. Punching himself that was what he wanted to do right now but it would not change what he had done.

His thoughts moving in circles Draco slowly got tired and fell asleep. Once more the pictures of the woman haunting his sleep were as real as they could be although the scenario was different.

_This time Crabbe and Goyle talked about how they would torture that_ bitch. _Their descriptions were quite close to what Malfoy had forced upon Granger. Draco´s body moved on its own. _

_Passing a mirror he could see that no silver mask was covering his face and his eyes were cold and merciless. It was his Death Eater self. The sound of their footsteps echoed through the hall. With one harsh movement he pushed the door open and the woman turned to face him. _

_Fear was edged onto her face. A smile spread on his face. _

_The devil´s smile. _

"_You are right …", he whispered, his voice low and deadly as he moved forward and placed a finger under her chin to force her to look him in the eye. _

" … I_ would kill a _friend_." Nonverbally he put _Sectusempra_ on her and her face contorted in pain. She coughed up blood and clutched at the front of his robe. _

"_You are better than this, Draco." Now it was pity that filled her brown eyes and the tears that ran down her face were not tears of pain. Those were tears of compassion._

Roughly Narzissa shook her son by the shoulders.

"Wake up!", she called and reluctantly he opened his eyes.

The wrinkles on his forehead disappeared. And his mother wiped the sweat from his face.

Narzissa knew very well that her son had horrible nightmares. He had awoken her by tossing around in his chair and groaning in what seemed to be agony. Draco was a way too proud man to talk about his dreams but would talk about his worries to his mother when he could no longer keep her in the dark. This was one of those rare occasions.

Swiftly she went back to bed but remained sitting and poured water into a fresh glass.

"Here, drink something." Narzissa slightly pushed the glass towards him.

"Thank you." His voice was hoarse and his throat dry as the desert.

Narzissa folded her hands on her lap and patiently waited for her son to tell her what was on his mind.

"I´m a monster, mother." Draco hid his face behind his hands and sighed. His fingers pulling at his hair he continued: "A horrible person. Just like father."

Her shoulders tense Narzissa clutched her bed sheet.

"What makes you come to this conclusion?" Her voice was calm yet there was a hint of anger.

"I did something to Granger."

"Did you call her _mudblood_?" Abruptly he lifted his head and locked eyes with his mother.

"No." Although it was only one word there was a whole sentence in the way he said it and that was: _what do you think of me? _

"What then? You did not hit her, did you?" His jaw clenched he merely glared at his mother. She of all people should know that he did not hit a woman. It was not what she had brought him up to be.

Driving his finger nails into the arm rests he managed to speak again without losing his temper.

"I forced my memories on her." What he said was merely a whisper and as his mother did not reply he added: "Memories of my time as a Death Eater."

A long time passed in silence in which Narzissa studied her son who looked at the floor in shame.

"Did you have your reasons?", she asked while she straightened her sheet. As he only shrugged she sighed, leaned forward and placed a finger under his chin to make him look up – right into her eyes.

"Tell me, Draco."

Cloudy grey met heavenly blue. From the look of her eyes he knew that whatever he had done and said his mother would still love him – forever. Narzissa sat there silently, not once interrupting his story, and patiently waited for her son to end his story. Overcome with anger again Draco had to make pauses to regain his calmness. Every once in a while a sigh of frustration and regret escaped his throat and he would hide his face in his hands. When the silence went on long enough to assume he was finished Mrs. Malfoy knew that he was done telling his story and only waited for her judgment.

"You were right.", she began and held up her hand to keep Draco from interrupting who had opened his mouth.

"And so was Hermione." Grabbing the arm rests he leant back and for the first time since he entered the room he made himself comfortable, carefully listening to his mother.

"She really is too good-hearted for her own good _but_ remember that it is thanks to this feature that we are allowed to stay here." They exchanged an intense glance and he nodded.

"Killing Vincent Crabbe would have made you just as bad as him. Draco, you are no bad person. I know that. Watching them kill and torture innocent people caused you so much pain. You yourself think that killing is not the solution. They may deserve it but it´s not upon you to do so." Placing her hand onto his chest she caressed him and her warmth made him feel better.

"Draco" Her voice carried a hint of sadness as her eyes were fixed on her hand – where his heart beat right under her touch.

"Your father is a broken man. You are wounded already. _Here_." Lightly she pressed her hand against him. "I don´t want to see you break." Draco could hear his mother swallow hard and he knew that she was fighting back tears.

"I won´t break, mother. I swear.", he said in his deep masculine voice and gave her hand a squeeze. Slowly Narzissa eyes him and was relieved when she saw him smile a smile she knew he reserved for few ones. Her shoulders relaxed and she returned his smile.

"You cannot get rid of your past, son. Everything has left traces – wounds. _But_ with time those wounds will heal." Draco gently brushed over her forehead and placed a kiss on it standing up.

"Thank you, mother.", he said standing at the door his back facing her and then he left.

* * *

For the rest of that day Hermione was nowhere to be found by anyone. This was because after she had got her nerves together and gained power over her body again she had left the house and had apparated into a park her parents used to take her – Virginia Water lake park.

There she took along walk taking in the beauty of the nature around her. The trees were covered with snow and a thin layer of ice was on the lake. Only very few times did she see someone, mostly people taking their dog for a walk of joggers.

The things Malfoy had shown to her were hard to cope with. Of course she had known that Death Eaters were capable of horrible things, she had even heard of what cruel deeds they did. But hearing about it and witnessing such cruelties were two very different things. Her insides turned at the thought of it and she felt sick.

Everything hit her with a pang, her legs got weak again and for fear she would fall over Hermione sat down on a big stone near the ruins to rest. What weighted down the most on her heart were not the scenes but the emotions which came with them. It was great emotional ballast to have to bear two emotions at one time – your own and those of Draco Malfoy. To know what he felt in these memories and seeing the blank expression and the occasional trademark smirk was confusing. Hermione really did not know where he got that control over his body from when all he felt was revulsion, anger, sickness and the urge to look away. He truly had suffered.

The blood, the smells, the screams – it all was so real in his memories Hermione had to throw up.

This left her with a burning throat, disgusting taste in her mouth, shaking hands and tears running down her face.

What Draco had done to her was horrible but still she could not blame him for doing so. Experiencing all this made her understand his anger a little better. She really had to stop believing that everyone could be good.

After coming to his conclusion she continued her walk around the lake her mind blank. Actually, she did not walk but run, ignoring the building pain in her legs, the ice-cold wind that hit her face and the feeling of her fingers going numb from coldness. Her body simply moved on its own. Did not even stop at the waterfall she used to admire every single time she came here nor at the huge stake.

When her brain started to work again she found herself in front of the pub near the park. There she sat down at a small table in a corner in one of the comfy chairs and drank tea. The hot cup helped her fingers to feel something again and the liquid warmed her from the inside. Although she knew Draco had been right about her being a goody-goody she still believed that she had been right about the killing part.

When the day came those two would receive their punishment. Coming to this decision Hermione made her way back to Grimmauld Place. There she actually wanted to look after Mrs. Malfoy´s wellbeing but when she opened the door she found her son sitting on the chair tossing his head around and groaning in his sleep.

So Hermione retreated and made herself comfortable in the library with some books about dark magic, a quill and paper. She would write down every cruel thing those two had done. For when the day of trial came Hermione would be ready to make sure that the only thing they will ever see again will be the harsh sea surrounding Azkaban.

* * *

When Hermione was finished with her lists the candle had almost burnt down, her eyes were heavy and her fingertips blackened from the ink. T

hankfully, Draco was already asleep on his couch so that she did not have to confront him yet. She had merely lain down and closed her eyes when Malfoy groaned and she could hear the sheet rustle from his turning around. Although she was exhausted she could not sleep knowing that he probably suffered from a nightmare.

Pulling her sheet back she went down on all fours and crawled towards the couch. In the darkness of the room she did not want to trip and wake Draco.

Reaching the couch she carefully felt her way to his face, gently brushing some strands of his long hair out of his face. Softly caressing his cheek she could feel him relay under her touch. His long exhale tickled her wrist.

The second she lifted her hand from his cheek he groaned, which seemed almost like in protest, so she continued to stroke him and began humming the lullaby her mother used to sing to her.

Only after what seemed like hours to her did she dare remove her hand again and was satisfied that no groaning could be heard. Relieved she sighed a "finally" and want back to her armchair to sleep as well.

* * *

The next day Draco was surprised to find that the armchair looked as if somebody had slept on it. Yet Hermione was not in the kitchen for breakfast.

Everyone acted normal so either they did not know of his fight with the witch or they forced themselves to be civil. Draco chose the first option.

Lupin filled him in about the upcoming meeting with McLaggen which would take place after Christmas and that he was meant to accompany Hermione, Shacklebolt and Angelina. For this though he needed a suit which they headed out to get one straight after breakfast.

It did not take them long though because he knew his measures quite well and already had in mind what kind of suit he wanted. It would not be all black like the one he had worn in 6th year. Of course the clothes were not fitted but still Draco thought himself to look handsome although Lupin had raised an eyebrow on his choice of color for the shirt.

Coming back to the head quarters he wanted to present his rented suit to his mother knowing that it would lighten up her mood. It was when he only was half way up the stairs that he heard his mother scream. Flying up the rest of the stairs and down the hall Draco pushed the door open.

What was presented to his eyes left him in pure shock. The _mark_ on Narzissa´s left arm was exposed and throbbed while Hermione held it still grabbing the other woman´s wrist and chanted a spell that he did not know.

"Make it stop.", his mother pressed out and her eyes rolled to the back of her head in pain. 

_"What is going on here?"_

* * *

**/ wonderful cliffhanger isn´t it? in the next chapter you will get to learn more about what happened to Hermione between 6th year and now. The chapter title will either be Occlumency or Memories, well you´ll see**

_**I always appreciate REVIEWS**  
_


	15. Throbbing Pain

Chapter 15: Throbbing Pain

The woman´s head snapped upwards and her eyes conveyed worry and hopelessness.

"Draco." It was Narzissa´s ragged voice; she held out her hand for him to take it which he did. Immediately she dug her nails into the flesh of his hand. Although he could feel the pain shooting through his veins Draco did not wince and his face remained neutral.

Hermione´s desperate chanting became louder and every few minutes she would try a new spell in hope it would stop the throbbing or at least ease the pain. Nothing worked though and she could feel how it drowned her magic and that soon she would lose her focus. Narzissa´s left arm felt like it was on fire, as if the blood was boiling in her veins. Frantically throwing her head from one side to the other and jerking around it became more difficult to keep her still and perform spells on her by the minute. Slowly but certainly Hermione ran out of spells. And so it happened that she fell silent, a single tear making its way down her cheek.

"I can´t help her, Draco. I´m so sorry." It was a mere whisper but loud enough for him to hear her but he did not react.

During the whole thing he had not let go of his mother´s hand and kept looking at her. If he could not help her he would at least endure it with her together. Gently he placed a kiss on the back of her hand which he firmly held in place while blood trickled down his arm. Her nails had dug so deep into his flesh that they had ripped his skin open. Both sat there in silence. Hermione´s eyes directed at the floor she thought hard about a spell that might work which she had not tried yet.

Narzissa´s growls, groans, gasps and screams were so loud that the sound of metal hitting wood was not heard by them. "Take a hold of her arms, Malfoy." Both flinched at the sound of Moody´s voice.

"What?", Draco replied unsure if he had heard the ex-auror right.

"Hold her arms down, I said.", he grunted. His eye twisted from Malfoy to Hermione, his good one never leaving Mrs. Malfoy. "And you grab her legs, Granger." Not hesitating any second Hermione did as she was told and Draco followed suit.

As soon as both had their hands in place tightly wrapped around the woman´s wrists and ankles Moody drew his wand and fixed both of his eyes on Mrs. Malfoy, the artificial one twitching slightly in its hold. He moved his hand in a circular motion and the tip of his wand first glowed black then red and then white. When this glow vanished he swiftly moved his wand down to point at Narzissa´s head.

All of a sudden she arched her back in a way Hermione was not sure if it even was possible to do it like that and threw her head back screaming as if she wanted to empty her lungs of all air at once. Also her muscles contracted and Hermione had to use all her weight to keep her down. It was really unbelievable how much strength people could muster if they had to. Surely, Hermione would not be able to forget the piercing sound of Narzissa´s scream. It was like those typical screams in muggle horror movies which Hermione had never enjoyed. It only lasted for the blink of an eye and then her whole body went linp and she slept from exhaustion.

Her face was relaxed and she looked beautiful, nobody would believe that just seconds ago she had suffered the worst of pains. Very slowly Draco let go of his mother´s wrists expecting her to struggle again any moment but she did not and he relaxed his shoulders and turned to Alastor Moody.

"Thank you." He got a snort as reply while Mad Eye put away his wand.

"I did nothing. The pain is still there, she just can´t feel it anymore.", he grunted and hobbled away.

Frustrated Hermione let herself slump back into her chair and sighed deeply. Moody was right. Without having to look at the _mark_ closely she could see it throbbing.

The young Malfoy´s eyes were full of sadness – the color of rain clouds. Seeing him standing there made her feel guilty. Hermione should have told him about what his mother had done. Once again he was as pale as death and she could swear that she could hear his heart break just a little bit.

"Kreacher.", she said softly and with a _Plop_ the house elf appeared. "I want you to stay with Mrs. Malfoy and put a cloth drenched with cold water onto her left arm. Also come to me when the throbbing lessens or stops."

Obediently the house elf nodded and disappeared again seemingly to get a bowl of cold water.

Standing up from the chair Hermione felt incredibly old. Every step she took towards the man was slow and heavy. His hand was warm and rough as she tugged on it. Hermione would have thought it to be cold.

"We can´t do anything for her – for now." As if in slow-motion his eyes moved from the pale face of his mother to the wrinkled with worry face of Hermione and back. For the short time they locked eyes Hermione could see all his emotions displayed in the dull grey of his eyes. It was pure sadness. It was so thick that she thought she could not breathe anymore and drown in it. Anger – that she could have dealt with, after all she had not been able to help his mother and had kept the mark a secret but this deep sadness hit her with a pang. A stinging feeling spread in her heart and she felt responsible for what had happened.

When Kreacher reentered the room they still stood there not having moved one inch – Draco watching his mother´s torso rise and fall, Hermione holding onto his hand while looking at him.

They remained like this for a couple more minutes until Hermione found the strength to speak again. "Let´s leave. She has to rest." Although Draco did not respond to that he still followed her as she pulled at his hand and lead into the library.

Not once did she look into his grey pools of sadness again until she had closed the door behind him and turned around. The sadness was still there but it seemed to be directed at her which confused her just as much as the fact that it was no longer the cold steely grey but the warm melted silver.

"I´m sorry.", it came out between his lips but it was so surreal that Hermione snapped "What?" unsure if she had heard him right.

"I´m sorry.", Draco repeated clear and loud, determination in his voice. Since Hermione´s reaction was to look at him as if he had just laid an egg, her eyebrows raised up to her hairline Draco added:"I shouldn´t have forced my memories onto you."

Her expression changed from confused to shock. His mother had just been in great pain, Hermione had kept a secret from him, could not help Narzissa and here he stood right in front of her apologizing to her. This had to be a really weird dream.

"It´s just that you got me so angry with your naivety that my temper hot the better of me."

Her eyes only widened at the realization that Draco really felt ashamed for what he had done. The signs were clear: his eyes were on the floor, his eyebrows furrowed, his hand lightly squeezed hers, his voice was quiet and his shoulders slumped down.

"I feel so-" "Stop it, Malfoy. I understand your reasons.", she interrupted with a soft whisper not feeling like she truly owned this apology.

His eyes snapped up and he looked at her questioningly. "No, you don´t", he replied calmly. He opened his mouth to continue his apology but was promptly stopped by Hermione placing two fingers over his lips to keep him silent.

"Don´t you think that now that I know about what happened and how you feel about it I would understand you? Sure, you could have proven me otherwise that I am too kind-hearted and that not everyone deserves a second chance. But that does not matter anymore, you cannot take it back." Despite her gentle words Draco still felt horrible.

Not able to meet her eyes anymore he slightly bowed his head, his long hair shielding him from her sight. Exhaling softly Hermione moved her hand from his lips to brush the loose strands of his hair behind his ear.

"This war does things to people and it´s a wonder that it did not break you. So stop picturing as the Death Eater you have been a long time ago."

Her kindness – he could not take it. He did not deserve this forgiveness. To him a punch into the face would have been more welcome.

Before she began talking again she gave his hand a reassuring squeeze. "Look at you. You joined the Order although it meant going against your father. You dealt really well with our distrust towards you. You helped to save Pansy. You take so good care of you mother."

A tiny smile stole itself onto her lips." The old Draco definitely would not be friends with me, Mudblood Granger." A low growl escaped his throat at the word he had called her so many times.

He slowly gave in to her arguments, knowing that she was right, and drew lazy patterns with his thump on the back of her hand. She had said that they are friends and as a reaction to this a warm feeling spread in his chest which he had never felt before. This certainly was the first time he had found a true friend for Pansy had only been a lover, Blaise a wingman, Crabbe and Goyle mere bodyguards. Draco tried to remember if he ever had had a true friend when Hermione spoke, this time in a tiny voice.

"It should be me who has to apologize. By keeping your mother´s secret to myself I endangered a mission and you did not know of her suffering." Draco placed a finger under her chin, for now it was her who avoided eye contact and moved her face up. He caught her amber eyes with his grey ones and she relaxed since there was neither accusation nor anger in them.

"Tell me.", his voice was coarse as if he had not used it in ages. Nodding her head she got rid of the finger under her chin to look at his left hand which she currently held and moved the fabric of his shirt upwards to reveal the Dark Mark.

"Your mother took all the dark magic from you including the mark. She can cope with the rest of the dark magic quite well but it seems that the mark can still function. I can cleanse her of the dark magic although it will take quite long."

A humming sound vibrated in his moth as he considered what she had just told him.

"That´s why Blaise was so upset when I showed him my Mark.", he stated and for some minutes both were quiet until he continued:"The Dark Lord must be angry about something and punishes his Death Eaters through the Mark."

His gaze wandered down the Mark, which was now mere ink under his skin, towards his hand. There his grey orbs lingered on Hermione´s fingers which held onto his. This simple touch allowed him to stay calm. He did not know why but in her presence he believed that he indeed had become a better person.

After another long minute of silence Hermione followed his eyes with hers and when she realized that they were practically holding hands she moved her away and stepped back. His stayed put until he let it drop to his side. Both their hands felt cold without the touch of the other. He watched those fingers fidgeting with the hem of her turtle neck.

Her eyes wandered over to the bookshelves reminding her that she wanted to request something from Draco. "I want to learn occlumency."

He raised an eyebrow although he could understand her he could not understand why she told him and not Lupin, Moody or Potter.

"You want _me_ to teach you?" She merely shrugged and answered lamely: "Why not?"

He had learned it from his aunt Bellatrix and so he only knew her methods of teaching which surely were not the nicest ones but effective. Back then her methods were closer to torture than to teaching but thus he was able to learn it in a very short time, after all he did not worship the Dark Lord like her – quite the opposite – and he did not want her to know. Draco sighed deeply. " Fine but you won´t like it."

**_/ so this is the full chapter. As you may have realized I have changed the title of this chapter because it was really important for me to have all their feelings, thoughts and their conversation in the library in this. Since I like to keep my chapter at same length you will get to know Hermione´s memories in the next one which I will probably fully dedicate to occlumency lessons._**

**_I have to say that it´s really amazing how many views this story and my new one got on October 31, it was like an early christmas for me. Thanks for the favs and alerts. I love you so much guys._**

**_The poll for this FF is still on my profile. And please let me know your opinion on my story in a review, I´d love that._**


	16. Occlumency Memories

Chapter 16: Occlumency / Memories

His last statement made her reconsider her decision for one second but she already knew from Harry that it was no nice thing to shield your mind against a good legilimens. Hermione thought that if she had asked Harry he would have gone easy on her and Moody would have been inconsiderably merciless.

Looking more determined Hermione locked eyes with Draco now looking away although she knew he could start his launch at her mind any second. To her surprise he merely smirked and ance again he was the bully she knew from school.

"Seriously, Granger, do you think I would start here and have you fall to the floor just so that Potthead and the Weasels can accuse me of hurting you?" And then there it was – another of his trademarks. He moved his hand through his silky hair, giving her a smug look.

Before she could say something to his taunt he had already left the room and headed for the stairs. Letting herself fall back a little Hermione followed him, not in the mood to interact with Hogwarts Malfoy. When her eyes fell on his broad back she remembered all the times he had made her feel small and weak.

She clicked her tongue and muttered more to herself: "Bullying, snobby prat."

Although he was already down the stairs he had heard her quiet mutter and swiftly turned around. She had only blinked twice and Draco stood in front of her, towering over her.

He gripped her shoulders tightly. His eyes were dark, almost black. If Hermione had been asked what hell looks like she would have answered like those dark eyes. Then she felt it. The icy touch of Draco´s mind right before he pushed through her thin barrier.

_The scene was in Hogwarts. _

_Draco, the new seeker for Slytherin´s Quidditch team, was among his team and stood right in front of the Golden Trio and the Gryffindor team. He had just insulted Hermione by calling her a mudblood for the first time. Enraged by this the Weasel made to attack him but his spell backfired on him and he threw up slugs in the most disgusting way. _

_Then there was the hut of Hagrid but the scene quickly changed to Hermione seemingly sitting on her bed in the tower. She hugged her knees close to her body. Her unruly hair covered her face but her sobs could still be heard as well as her trembling could be seen._

Draco broke the contact and held Hermione in place by her shoulders. The iciness was gone but was immediately replaced by a stabbing pain in her head. She took a shaky breath and regained control over her body again.

So this was the feeling of someone breaking through your mental barrier and feasting on your memories. Harry had described it several times to her and Ron during fifth year but she had always thought that he must be exaggerating. The icy feeling of two minds touching, the suffocating feeling during the investigation of memories and the feeling of having your head rammed against a wall – it had all been nothing but the truth.

She had to close her eyes to concentrate on her body. It took her quite long to steady her breathing and when she opened her eyes Draco was long gone. Carefully she took the last steps down the stairs and entered the living room where Malfoy already sat waiting, a mocking eyebrow cocked.

"What took you so long, Granger? Do you _already_ want to throw in the towel?", his voice was cold with a hint of triumph in it.

Malfoy had walked away as the winner too often in Hogwarts so Hermione would not let him have this satisfaction. She would give it her all.

"I´m fine.", she snapped and forced her body to stop trembling.

"Very well, then lie down so we can start.", he drawled casually and pointed on his couch.

Determined not to show any weakness Hermione did not hesitate to do what he said.

"So, you know how this works, Granger?"

The rolling of her eyes came naturally and she answered annoyed: "Yes, I do."

She did not like people insulting her intelligence. His smirk widened to reveal his white teeth.

"Of course you do, know-it-all. So let´s make this more entertaining … for me."

Draco took place on the couch as well and shifted his body so that their faces were close. Their noses almost touched and she could feel his breath on her skin. There was no way of evading his intense stare. He had an expression on his face that could mean nothing good for her.

"You wouldn´t want me to find out what happened between you and the Weasel, would you?" Her eyes went wide hearing his say that in this sweet tone a mocking snicker quickly following.

Malfoy was right. This clearly was not something she wanted him to know and definitely not something she was very keen to remember, yet it was too late. The memories came flooding back and once again she was overwhelmed with emotions.

When she felt his mind touch hers it was too late for her to even think of building a barrier against him. Only a barely hearable "no" escaped her lungs.

_The Golden Trio was in a dark house with only the light from the tips of their wands revealing the features of the room they were in. They were slightly older then sixth years so this had taken place after Dumbledor´s death. Clad in black cloaks they searched the room. Tell-tale circles under their eyes showed that they had barely slept. _

_First there was the creaking noise of a door being opened, then a squeal followed by the shuffling of small feet. Both, Potter and Hermione, turned around and to find a house elf fleeing from Weasley. _

_"Grab him, Ron.", Potter comanded and also jumped in to help his friend try to catch the evasive creature. _

_"Burglars" BURG-" While Potter and Weasley let themselves be fooled around by the house elf Granger took quick action and magically chained and gagged it. _

_"Thanks, Mione.", the Weasel blurted out earning him a _"Shushhhhh"_ from the girl._

_ Now they strained their ears to hear if someone had noticed them. When there still was no sound after a minute they want back to their search while the house elf dangled upside down from the ceiling. _

_The sun was rising when Weasel exclaimed: "Found it." _

_His fingers had already touched the book when Granger hissed: "Don´t pull it out."_

_ Of course Weasel was about to do that and overhearing her warning pulled it out. As soon as the book was fully pulled out an earsplitting noise spread in the house. _

_"RUN!", Potter shouted and then everything happened very fast. _

_With one move of Potter´s wand the window burst into tiny pieces and they had only run a couple of meters when a tall man appeared behind them followed by a small woman. Curses shot through the air while the pursuers quickly caught up with them. The wood in front of them was their rescue. _

_"Let´s split!", Potter shouted and began running to the left. Hermione kept heading straight and Weasley drifted to the right. _

_Her breath was frantic and her face covered in sweat. You could already see that it would not take long until she would be exhausted and therefore caught. _

_A red light shot by close to her head. The man was following her. Panic was displayed in her eyes. Aimlessly she shot numerous curses behind her. None of them came even close to their target. _

_Realization struck her. It was either her or him and running would be her defeat. She could not win with pure physical strength as well and once again it paid off that she had read all those books. _

_In one swift movement she halted and turned to face her opponent. She was the image of a lioness – a true Gryffindor – with her mane of disarranged hair, her eyes full of determination and her wand ready for the attack. Even her teeth were slightly bared. _

_Before the man could even think of a curse Hermione had already fired a blinding curse at him. His hand moved to his eyes. _

_"Argh! You bitch!"He pointed his wand in the direction where she no longer stood and shot several _Cruciatus_ curses at her. _

_The blinding spell would not last much longer so Hermione went on with her plan. _

_Next she put the tup of her wand to her throat and spoke: "Try and find me." Her voice came from several directions making him move frantically. _

_Within the blink of an eye fog spread around her. The fog was so thick that you could barely see your own hand. _

_Afterwards the scenery was presented from above for Hermione was now standing on a broad branch of a tree desperately clinging to the stem. Below red lights could be seen within the fog, the man clearly running into one direction – away from her. It did not take long until the red curses were only distant lights. _

_Although she was save Hermione´s face was stained by tears and her hand clasped over her mouth to make sure no sound would escape. _

_Like the fog whiteness covered the scene to reveal Grimmauld Place. The whole Order was in the living room, all eyes set on her except for Weasley´s. _

_The room was filled with silence while Hermione slowly approached Ron who faced the cold fire place. At first he did not react to the hand she had placed on his shoulder but when she gave it a squeeze he reluctantly turned._

_ His face went through a metamorphosis: sadness - shock - realization. _

_"You are alive.", he breathed and pressed her close to his body. _

_Over and over again he repeated this sentence while tears found their way down his cheeks. She returned his embrace and whispered into his ear: "Yes, I´m alive." _

_They stayed like this until she gasped: "You are hurting me, Ron." _

_As if he had gotten burnt he jumped back and gazed at her, gladness reflecting in his eyes. Her face expressed such a tender emotion the Weasley kissed her out of the blue._

Head against wall. That feeling returned. Her eyelids felt as heavy as steel yet she could not look away from those winter storm cold grey eyes.

"You call that a barrier? Or did you want to freak me out with disgusting pictures of Weasel sucking your face off?" His voice sounded almost disappointed.

Since she did not reply he continued: "Nice try but I´ve seen worse." Still no reply from her.

Exhaustion was written all over her face. He had overdone it. The only thing which was left was the will to go on in her eyes but this was easy to break. Now Draco knew how pathetic he must have looked like.

Although Hermione theoretically knew how occlumency works she was not capable of performing it yet.

Draco sighed deeply and pinched the bridge of his nose. The situation was troublesome. If he went on like this the fear of his intrusion would block her sense to put up a barrier so this would not bring them any further.

"I´ll be back in a minute, feel free to relax, Granger.", he said and left the room. She followed him with her eyes to the door and heard that he took the door to the kitchen.

As soon as she could no longer hear him she let her tears go loose. All the things she had repressed for such a long time were there again – fresh and real. Their happy moments, their playful banters, their adventures with Harry and of course the big fight after which Ron had ruined it all, _had crushed her heart_.

When she heard Draco reenter the room she quickly wiped away her tears and tried to act as if nothing had occurred while he had been gone. Of course her effort was to no avail for with one glance at her Draco knew very well that she had cried but to her surprise he did not say a snide remark.

He placed his tray on the table and handed her one of the steaming tea cups. There was no hostility towards her, he was back to _normal_. She watched him carefully out of the corners of her puffy eyes. He was relaxed and composed.

"We´ll continue tomorrow." Those were the only words which passed his lips for the rest of the day.

* * *

That night Hermione did not sleep at all and Draco knew it.

Why? - Because he could hear her shift every few minutes and feel her agitation and restlessness. While listening to her turmoil he considered ways to continue his teachings and avoid to hurt her – not physically but mentally.

* * *

The next morning they sat at breakfast in silence the others immediately recognizing that something was off about Hermione. They knew this state of her. She had been like this for months after Ron her presented Hilde as his pregnant wife.

The fact that the throbbing of Narzissa´s arm had slightly lessened could not lighten her mood either. She barely touched her food and left the kitchen before everyone else going into the living room to wait for Draco.

It did not take long and he stood in the door. Although she had waited for him and knew what was to come she suddenly felt afraid.

There were so many things she did not want to be reminded of, so many emotions she never wanted to feel again and secrets which only she knew of and it would be nothing for Draco to discover them. It was as if he was snatching a treasure away from her.

To him she looked like a deer caught in headlights. Placidness shone in the silver of his eyes and Hermione visibly relaxed.

He had changed his strategy. "We´ll do something else today. Your barrier is as good as non-existent so I´ll only invade your mind for a short time and you will try to shield yourself as good as you can."

Sitting down next to her he gave her a look that should question her if she had understood and was ready. She nodded and he cupped her face in his big hands holding it so that they could make best eye contact.

"You´d better be ready, Granger. Here I come." The words had barely left his lips when Hermione felt the icy touch.

Her barrier was thicker then the day before but he could still push through easily.

_Child´s play._

He kept his promise and only took a glimpse at her memories.

Over the next hours Draco got a look at all sorts of events: Hermione and the Weasel laughing, cuddling in bed, arguing, conciliating, kissing, at various locations with McLaggen the Weasel always shooting him jealous glances.

Although blocking her mind was hard and energy consuming Hermione managed to strengthen her barrier each time making it harder for Draco. This she was capable of because the longer he did it the closer he came to the memories she did not want him to lay his eyes on.

"You´re getting better, Granger. So let´s get serious again. Lie down." Her confidence wavered, still she did as she was told.

The barrier was set, the only thing left was to wait for his attack and hope that it was strong enough. At first it looked like she had done it but then he had come at her with such strength that the barrier crumbled and finally broke.

_An enraged Weasel stood in front of Hermione. His face was red, contorted with hatred. _

_"Stop fucking with me! Do you think I can´t see how obviously you are _flirting_ with _him_?", he shouted furiously. _

_Hermione gasped at his harsh words and shook her head. _

_"Ron, you know that´s not the truth. I am loath to be near him. I lov-" _

_"Don´t. Say. It.", he bit out every word while she clung to the front of his shirt looking at him in disbelief. _

_"I´m not good enough for you anymore. _Of course_ you would want a guy with more money and influence." His voice was dripping with venom. _

_"NoNoNoNoNoNo", tears were falling down her cheeks. "I only do this for the Order. I _have_ to." _

_She looked up at him with pleading eyes but was only met with bitterness. _

_"_Of course!_ It´s all for the Order. What if they ask you to shag him? Would you?" _

_Her mouth was agape with shock. His words were like physical hits. _

_"Don´t answer. I know you would! You´d shag him senseless, WHORE!" With that he pushed her away hard and stormed off. _

_Hermione was left on the floor crouched together. "I HATE YOU!" This was her final scream, afterwards came only sobbing._

_The scene changed. _

_Hermione had her hair short now and looked hopeful. _

_There was the sound of apparition and she promptly ran out of her room and towards the stairs. Downstairs the voices of Mrs. and Mr. Weasley could be heard. _

_"… want to introduce my wife Hilde." _

_Catching that sentence Hermione froze midway. All happy emotions vanished from her eyes. _

_Robotically she turned around and made her way back to her room where she collapsed on her bed crying uncontrollably._

Those memories really were harsh. Now that he had seen it he felt bad for manipulating her to show it to him. He had expected a break-up scene but not one of this cruelty. The Weasel had even been worse than Draco had been to Pansy.

He looked at her concerned while she was trying hard to blink back her tears. A sniffle, a sob and hot tears ran down her face and his fingers.

"No more. Please, stop.", she whimpered.

Frowning he considered her plea. There was nothing he wanted to do more at the moment but he could not, he had to go on … for her sake.

"No. Just one more time." Without further warning he stretched out his mind to infiltrate hers.

For only one second a picture of Hermione in Krum´s arms flashed up before he was pushed out.

Although he was confused because he could not make any sense of the last picture he smiled.

"Well done, Granger." He patted her head and left the room to give her some private space.

**/ ah finally the full chapter and it´s pretty long one a well. I hope I did not use a too violent language. If I did please tell me and I´ll change it.**

**Hope you liked her memories. Next chapter will be a christmas one. The last peaceful one before the meeting with McLaggen.**

_**Review, please?**_


	17. Mistletoe

Chapter 17: Mistletoe

They kept going on like this with her occlumency training without Draco ever grasping a scene long enough to make sense of only thing he got were flashes of pictures – no Weasel, no Krum. It only took her a couple of weeks to master the technique.

It was on their last night of training that Hermione could not sleep. Not because of her memories, these she had in control now, but because of Draco flailing around and moaning in his sleep once more.

She had never addressed it and she would not. Although he had gained trust in all of them during his stay at Grimmauld Place he was still a man of secrets of which he had to give away so many that she did not want to steal this from him. If he wanted to tell her he would do it, that she was sure she decided not to wake and confront him but rather calm him down like she had done last time.

Crawling over to his couch she carefully sat down next to him. First she caressed his cheek while humming a lullaby tune then she traced over the aristocratic lines of his face softly with her fingertips. Her gentle touch soon calmed him down so she made to go back to her armchair but could not.

An invisible power held her in place. She struggled against it before she finally got the meaning of this. Slowly her eyes wandered upwards glaringly and like she had thought a small bundle of mistletoe hovered over their heads. Thankfully she knew the consequences very well for when she did not kiss Draco right away so she carefully felt for his lips and after having stroked over his soft lips with her thump she lowered her head until their lips met.

The kiss was feathery light and could hardly be called one for it was only a quick touch. Afterwards she looked up at the retreating mistletoe with such an intense glare that you had to wonder that it did not burst in flames.

* * *

Hermione had to try hard not to send Fred a death glare for if she did he would know that she had been caught under his enchanted mistletoe and would not stop nagging her about it until she told him who she had to kiss and having had kissed Moody the year before was already embarrassing enough.

* * *

As usually they got packed to stay at Andromeda´s for Christmas and so it happened that everyone was gathered in the hallway for the departure. Unlike the others Draco did not know about the danger of standing too close to someone else but he would soon learn of it. It happened that he stood right behind Harry and Ginny.

A snickering Lee Jordan and a smirking Fred watched as the mistletoe settled above the blond and the redhead. It stayed there for a couple of seconds unseen before it made an abrupt turn for Harry and Draco.

"This is brilliant.", Lee bit out between snickers, tars of laughter already gathering in his eyes.

Knowing her brother, his mischievous grin and his wicked mind around this time of the year very well Ginny knew exactly what she had to look for and finding it her own mischievous grin spread on her lips.

"Guess who got caught under the mistletoe?", she asked sweetly not even trying to hide her malicious glee.

Mad Eye snorted and made a move with his head into the mistletoe´s direction to the yet unknowing victims. "I told you a thousand times, Harry: Constant vigilance!"

At this comment Harry´s wide eyes darted upwards then to the one who stood below it with him. His face paled and he grimaced.

"This is the best mistletoe incident ever!", Tonks shouted while Lupin stood next to her smiling amusedly, watching the scene.

"Come on, Harry, kiss him."

"Ginny, even you?" Harry felt betrayed and embarrassed. If he did not act quick this would become the worst mistletoe prank ever and not one of the people around him would let him forget about it.

"Potter, you know that this is only a stupid tradition and you don´t have to go along with it.", Malfoy murmured from behind him.

Surprisingly Potter turned around sighing and gave him a peck on the cheek contrary to what he had told him to do.

"Argh! Potter!", he snapped at the shorter man wiping the trace of the peck with the back of his hand.

The expectant look from the Boy Wonder made him step back. Potter did not really expect him to return the gesture, did he? It was not the thought of pecking a guy on the cheek which made cold shivers run down his spine but rather the thought that it would be Potter and in front of all those people. Draco wanted to retreat further but found that he could not.

"What is this shit?", he exclaimed while those nasty smirks grew on the lips of the ones surrounding.

"Stop struggling, Malfoy! Bloody kiss me!", Potter shouted in a commanding voice.

"Definitely not!"

"Malfoy!"

"Shut it, Potter!"

"Do! It!"

_"NO!"_

"You stupid ferre-" Malfoy had overdone his struggle. His time for decision was up. Against his will his hand drew Potter´s head closer and his lips came crushing down on the Golden Boy´s. They shared a most passionate kiss during which both of them screamed silently inside.

Malfoy ended the kiss by shoving Harry away from him, his usually pale face a sickly green color. Harry looked equally disgusted and frantically wiped his mouth.

Laughter spread around them through which they could hear Fred tell Lee: "Quick, give me the box!" In the matter of some seconds he held a blank piece of paper in his hand shaking it. The clear surface soon was revealed to be an enchanted photograph showing the scene they had just witnessed.

"This is the newest feature of the Maddening Magical Mistletoe. In addition to the _force the victims to kiss against their will_ – function it now also takes pictures." Fred passed the picture to Ginny who had a giggling fit and cried like a baby.

"The quality is supreme.", he slowly turned to Hermione and continued: "Even at _night_ the photograph looks as if taken in broad daylight."

This, Hermione was sure of, he said to let her know that her kiss with Malfoy did not remain a secret to him. Shooting him a glare he merely winked at her and left to apparate. Lee caught the mistletoe and put it into his jacket pocket and followed his friend.

"As soon as this war is over I´m so going to publish this picture.", Ginny squealed which earned her an annoyed huff from her future husband and a death glare from Malfoy. His shoulder slumped Harry turned to Malfoy.

"Well done, Malfoy.", he grumbled and made to leave with Ginny. Draco pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed heavily.

"Worst day in quite a long time."

"Master Black." The sudden appearance of Kreacher surprised him.

"What is it?"

"Kreacher will take Mistress to other house, Kreacher most careful." Sending the house elf off with a nod Draco waited for his turn to apparate side-along with Granger.

When they finally arrived on the doorstep of a small country house the entrance was filled with an aura of happiness. Everyone crowded around a woman who had she not held the small Ted in her arms Draco would have held her for his aunt Bellatrix. So this was his mother´s other sister Andromeda who had married a muggleborn. She had a pleasant appearance beside her similarities to Bellatrix. Her eyes were glistening, her smile full of friendliness and her curls a warm brown.

When she finally noticed his presence she openly stared at him, the room going quiet as if everyone was waiting for her reaction. First she only stared into his eyes then her eyes wandered up and down on him trying to grasp every detail. Draco felt as if he was being graded and the silence between them stretched to an unbearable length. For him her eyes were sealed, no emotions displayed, making him nervous. Slowly she sat down her grandson and took steps towards him, her eyes locked with his.

Only when she was inches away form him did he see the sparkle of friendliness in her eyes again and was soon enveloped in her warm embrace.

"Finally. Welcome home, Draco.", she whispered and he swore he heard her sob. She pulled him closer towards her before she stepped back and held him at arms length to have a proper look at him with her watery eyes.

"You´ve grown to be a very handsome young man." With quite some strength for such a small women she pulled him down and kissed him on the cheek which left him blinking dumbly.

"Mum! Get off him. Can´t you see that you are making him feel uncomfortable?", his cousin came to his rescue and dragged her mother away.

**/ this is not the full chapter yet, sadly. I had problems with my computer and now I continue writing on my parents´ one and I hate it, it´s so slow. I hope I will be able to upload the rest soon because I already finished the chapter in handwriting. Although this is still not the finished version I wanted to upload it because I said that I would upload on christmas ^^**

**Merry Christmas to all of you!**

_**Review, please?**_


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